It happened again. Rain over the past few days, including today, has caused flooding on roads and has closed the day use areas of Hunting Island Beach and State Park.
South Carolina State Parks posted the notice on social media today announcing the closure.
“Due to heavy rain the past two days and continuing today, the roads into Hunting Island State Park are flooded and impassable,” the notice said.
“The day-use area of the park is closed, to include South Beach & North Beach.”
“The campground remains open and we are honoring those reservations. We apologize for the inconvenience. We will be working hard to pump water and reopen the park as soon as possible.”
If you’re having flashbacks, we understand.
The most recent Hunting Island closure came after intense rains on July 6th & 7th dumped a whopping 12 inches of rain on our sea islands in a 48 hour period, causing roads and lower-lying spots in the park to be flooded.
It ended up remaining closed for more than two weeks as park staff pumped water from the roads while waiting for nature to help drain them of flood waters.
This certainly isn’t the first time that Hunting Island saw a flood.
The past few years haven’t been kind to everyone’s favorite local beach. Hurricane Matthew caused lots of destruction in 2016 and that was followed by Irma in 2017 and each time there are heavy rains, some of the roads in the park flood out, as does the campground.
Reports say that the roads in the park will be undergoing a major overhaul in the future and will be raised a few feet above their present height to help avoid flooding in the coming years.
Let’s hope that she dries out soon. Before we start to experience a case of beach separation anxiety.
