Repeat of Memorial Day-flooding not likely from tropical depression

While a tropical depression is warming up in Florida, it’s unlikely to cause the sort ofserious flooding the Lowcountry experienced during Tropical Storm Bonnie in May, Jasper County officials say.

It’s good news for Labor Day travelers, who can expect clear roads whether they’re headed to Hilton Head Island or continuing on to Georgia.

That wasn’t the case over Memorial Day weekend, when severe flooding mucked up Jasper County’s main arteries, including I-95. Tropical Storm Bonnie forced the closure of a section of the interstate for nearly 24 hours that weekend, and flooded several other smaller roads.

Wilbur Daley, director of Jasper County Emergency Services, says he doesn’t expect similar problems from Tropical Depression Nine, which is expected to turn into a tropical storm by Wednesday as it moves from the Gulf of Mexico across northern Florida and turns across the Florida-Georgia line.

Beaufort and Jasper counties may get a glancing blow, but the rain will pass through the area much more quickly than with Bonnie, which stalled over the region, dumping more than 10 inches of rain on Ridgeland, Daley said.

“I think we’re going to get some rain, but not a tremendous amount,” he said. “(The system’s) moving, it’s not sitting still.”

Daley added that the ground is much drier than it was in May, before Bonnie struck, so there are plenty of dry ditches and streams for heavy rainfall to drain into.

Follow The Island Packet for more weather updates through the weekend.

This story was originally published August 30, 2016 at 4:07 PM with the headline "Repeat of Memorial Day-flooding not likely from tropical depression."