After closing last Wednesday due to flooding on the park roadways, Hunting Island beaches will reopen on Monday morning.
The park closed after three days of heavy rain caused the low-lying fragile roadways leading into the park to become inundated with water, making them impassable.
The reopening of the day use areas was announced on the park’s official Twitter page on Sunday evening.
“We are reopening tomorrow [Monday] at 6AM. Both North Beach and South Beach will be open,” the post said.
“Our roads are still wet and have puddles so please drive very slowly and read all traffic signs.”
To reassure everyone’s safety, the user also said that the largest puddle is only 4” deep. “You can make it.”
Great news:
We are reopening tomorrow at 6AM. Both North Beach and South Beach will be open. Our roads are still wet and have puddles so please drive very slowly and read all traffic signs. The largest puddle is only 4” deep. You can make it. #goslow #BeSafeOutThere— Hunting Island State Park (@HuntingIslandSP) September 14, 2020
Before last Wednesday, 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 2 weeks as park staff pumped water from the roads while waiting for nature to help drain them of flood waters. 2 weeks is a long time to wait for Hunting Island to reopen.
We’re glad that it was only 5 days this time around.
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.
We’ll see y’all at the beach…
