Finally! The announcement came around 4:45 this afternoon that the north end of Hunting Island beach and state park will be reopening on Friday on a limited basis.
The word came from the State Park’s official Twitter page.
We are so happy to announce that we will be opening tomorrow on a limited basis. We will be able to allow 200 vehicles into the park at a time. It’s not much, but at least we are back open! #ParkRangerPartyDance 🤠🥳🕺💃🌴🏖️ pic.twitter.com/c7HxMIYbWU
— Hunting Island State Park (@HuntingIslandSP) July 23, 2020
According to the tweet, the park will be limited to 200 cars and the south beach area will remain closed as roads are still underwater there. In addition, most of the trails will be closed, and the lighthouse will also remain closed until further notice.
Traffic patterns into the park will be changed.
The 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
According to park staff, the entire day use areas of the park will remain closed, with the only exception being the campground.
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.
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