What you need to know as Tropical Storm Elsa moves through Beaufort and Jasper counties
Tropical Storm Elsa is expected to pass just inland of Beaufort County between midnight and 8 a.m. Thursday as it went over Georgia late Wednesday evening.
A tornado warning was issued in Beaufort County after a thunderstorm with the capacity to produce a tornado was spotted over Hilton Head Airport, according to the National Weather Service, but ended up weakening just after 12:15 a.m. Thursday when the warning was set to expire.
“(Elsa) will either be a minimal tropical storm, which is why we have tropical storm warnings in effect, or it may be a tropical depression at that time,” Steve Rowley, a meteorologist from the National Weather Service, said earlier Wednesday.
At 11 p.m. Wednesday, Tropical Storm Elsa was 150 miles west-southwest of Charleston, and 80 miles northwest of Brunswick, Georgia, moving north-northeast at 16 mph with maximum sustained winds of 45 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center. Tropical-storm-force winds (39 mph to 73 mph) extend outward up to 100 miles from the center of the storm. Hurricane-force winds are classified as sustained winds of 74 mph or more.
Beaufort and Jasper counties were among those included in a tornado watch until 5 a.m. Thursday. A tropical storm warning also was in effect for the entire South Carolina coastline.
As of 12:32 a.m., Dominion Energy reported 50 incidents that caused outages affecting 5,724 customers and Palmetto Electric reported 7,031 outages.
The main concern for Beaufort County continues to be flooding due to excessive rainfall, Rowley said. Beaufort County is expected to see 2 to 4 inches of rain with locally higher amounts, but rip currents are also a concern.
Bluffton, Beaufort, Hilton Head, and Port Royal are all areas that are expected to see flooding, according to the National Weather Service. A flood advisory has been issued until midnight Thursday.
“There’s a high risk for rip currents,” Rowley said. “It’s just going to be really rough in the water.”
Minimal tropical-storm-force winds, meaning winds between 45 and 50 mph, are projected to reach the area between midnight and 4 a.m. Thursday, according to the National Weather Service. Winds at this speed can cause damage to roadways and mobile homes that are not anchored down. They also can lead to power failures.
Heavy rainfall was expected to arrive in Beaufort County ahead of the storm, according to Jonathan Lamb, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service. The rainfall potential does not strictly follow the track of the storm, he said, and there is “quite a bit of rain” expected in the area before the center of the storm.
Meteorologists do not expect storm-surge flooding in the area because the wind direction is not “particularly favorable,” Lamb said, but rainfall could lead to localized flooding in the area Wednesday night through Thursday morning.
The center of Tropical Storm Elsa made landfall in Taylor County, Florida, located along the northern Florida Gulf Coast around 11 a.m. Wednesday.
The main potential risks from Elsa, according to the National Weather Service in Charleston, are:
- Tropical storm-force winds
- Rip currents
- Heavy rainfall and flooding
- Isolated tornadoes
How to deal with flash flooding
The South Carolina Emergency Management Division suggests doing the following in the case of flash flooding:
- Move to higher ground as soon as you see the possibility of flash flooding. Do not wait.
- Do not walk through moving water. 3 to 6 inches of moving water can cause you to lose your footing and fall. If walking in water cannot be avoided, go where the water is not moving. A stick can be used to check the firmness of the ground in front of you.
- No cars should be driven in flooded areas. If water does rise around your car, abandon the car immediately and relocate to higher ground.
- Never try to drive around or move barricades that are blocking a street.
This story was originally published July 7, 2021 at 9:18 AM.
