Hurricane Irma: Hilton Head Hospital Suspends Operations

Hilton Head’s hospital shuttered operations Saturday afternoon as South Carolina’s coast battens down amid a hurricane watch placed on its coast in anticipation of Hurricane Irma’s landfall Sunday.

The hospital’s decision to close follows a call from state officials for the evacuation of 143 healthcare facilities and nursing homes along the coast before the storm’s arrival this weekend.

“In accordance with Gov. Henry McMaster’s mandatory evacuation of Hilton Head Island, and in coordination with the Town of Hilton Head Island, Hilton Head Hospital will be suspending services for the duration of the storm,” the hospital said in a statement. “Our emergency room will suspend services at 4pm today, Saturday, Sept. 9. We are currently continuing to safely evacuate our inpatients.”

Evacuations throughout the southeast have brought 124,000 additional vehicles through the Palmetto State so far, South Carolina Department of Transportation said Sept. 9.

There are fewer than 50 people currently house in South Carolina shelters and the state still has plenty of hotel vacancies, South Carolina Emergency Management Division said Saturday. Gas shortages have also been rare, SCEMD said.

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South Carolina is expecting four to seven inches of rain from Irma, while as much as 10 inches could fall along the coast. The greatest concern in the state, say emergency officials, is a storm surge along the southern coastline, which would be most significant Monday around midday.

Hurricane Irma approached Cuba Saturday morning as a powerful Category 5 storm. By 11 a.m., the National Hurricane Center said Irma's clash with the island nation had weakened her to Category 3 status. Still very much classified a "major" hurricane, Irma remained on a path that is expected to have potentially catastrophic impacts on Florida's west coast and the Tampa Bay area.

By 11 a.m. Saturday, Irma, the behemoth that tore through the Caribbean, leaving at least 20 people dead in its wake, was packing maximum sustained winds of 125 mph. Irma was located about 175 southeast of Key West, moving west at 9 mph.

On its current projected path, Irma is expected to clear the northern Cuban coastline on Saturday and make landfall in Florida sometime Sunday.

Although weakened somewhat, hurricane center forecasters warn that Irma remains a powerful storm. The current projections show her retaining major hurricane status after clearing the Tampa Bay area on Monday.

"Irma is expected to make landfall in Florida as an extremely dangerous major hurricane, bringing life-threatening wind impacts to much of the state regardless of the exact track of the center," the center wrote in its 11 a.m. Sept. 9 update. "Wind hazards from Irma are also expected to spread northward along the coast of Georgia and South Carolina where a hurricane watch has been issued."

Forecasters say Irma’s hurricane-force winds extend out 70 miles from the center, while tropical storm-force winds reach out 195 miles.

Patch Editor Sherri Lonon contributed to this report

Pictured in this image, traffic backs in the north-bound lanes of Interstate 75 near the Georgia-Florida state line as people flee Hurricane Irma Friday, Sept. 8, 2017, in Jennings, Fla.. (John Bazemore/Associated Press)

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