Letter: Sheriff’s re-entry plan was nonsense

While it is completely understandable that some limits have to be placed on re-entry into Beaufort County, our leaders showed a complete lack of common sense in its execution. It seems as though nobody did any thinking in advance.

Many of those waiting in the ridiculous traffic jams on U.S. 278, S.C. 46, and S.C. 462 did have homes to go to that experienced no damage.

Sun City represents a large percentage of the population south of the Broad River, and was mostly spared with power restored very quickly. This was verified with contact from neighbors.

Unfortunately, setting up the road blocks in Jasper County prevented hundreds of residents from returning. The state police would let Sun City residents past the U.S. 278 road block if they showed that they lived on the Jasper County side, yet the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office would not allow them to let the Beaufort County residents south of U.S. 278 return. That is simply nonsense!

Many of the people waiting were not looking for special privileges, just common sense. If the Sheriff’s Office would have located the barricades a mile east so they were at the Sun City main gate, or at least given the state police greater latitude in letting vehicles pass with identification, hundreds of residents could have returned and the problem lessened.

After sitting in our cars for hours to hear Sheriff P.J. Tanner say on the radio that everybody would be taken to Bluffton High School to sort out residency just showed how out of touch he was with the situation. Sheriff, there is more to this county than Hilton Head!

I was happy to evacuate on Wednesday but given the poor re-entry execution by our county I do not plan to ever do it again.

This story was originally published October 20, 2016 at 2:04 PM with the headline "Letter: Sheriff’s re-entry plan was nonsense."