Sunset Beach calls for mandatory evacuation

SHALLOTTE, N.C. | Sunset Beach has issued a mandatory evacuation call and is urging residents to get off the island by 2 p.m.

Tropical Storm Hanna's projected landfall has shifted southward and is now expected to hit shore somewhere along the N.C.-S.C. border between midnight and 8 a.m. Saturday. That means islands like Sunset and Ocean Isle Beach just to the north could experience more force from the storm than if it had made landfall more eastward, around Oak Island or Bald Head Island.

"We'll have sustained winds for a while," Randy Thompson, Brunswick emergency services director, said this morning. The National Weather Service is still expecting between 2 inches and 4 inches of rain, although some areas could get as much as 5 inches, he said.

The storm is still expected to be moving north at a fairly rapid clip. But Thompson cautioned that the storm is growing in size and bands now extend out about 300 miles from the storm's center. Tropical storm force winds are expected to begin in Brunswick County sometime this afternoon, Thompson said.

The swing bridge to Sunset will be closed to traffic when winds reach 35 mph. Bridges at Ocean Isle and Holden Beach will close when sustained winds reach 55 mph and 50 mph, respectively. Full evacuation route map (PDF)

- Steve Jones

Comments

[William]

you would think they would put Myrtle Beach under mandanitory evacuation