SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) – State troopers turned Interstate 16 into a one-way escape route Saturday as evacuees packed cars and fled the Georgia coast ahead of Hurricane Irma, which forecasters said could cause widespread damage in the state from storm surge near Savannah to toppled trees and power lines far inland in Atlanta.
All 100 miles (160 kilometers) of the Georgia coast was placed under a hurricane watch Saturday. So was a portion of coastal South Carolina from the Georgia line to Edisto Beach, about 40 miles (65 kilometers) southwest of Charleston.
Georgia’s coast hasn’t suffered a direct landfall from a major hurricane since 1898, and Irma looked unlikely to snap that streak. The National Hurricane Center predicted the storm’s center would arrive inland in southern Georgia heading northward through the state Monday after churning up the west coast of Florida.
Gov. Nathan Deal’s order for nearly 540,000 people to evacuate Georgia’s six coastal counties took effect Saturday, with authorities turning all lanes of I-16 into one-way routes leading westward out of Savannah. Traffic out of the city and its neighboring island communities appeared light. Most businesses were closed in Savannah, where a smattering of homes and storefronts had plywood covering their windows.
Terry Boykin said most of her neighbors on Whitemarsh Island, just east of Savannah, had fled early. Boykin and her three grandsons packed her SUV early Saturday with small suitcases, three coolers filled with food from their refrigerator and a propane grill. They planned to stay with Boykin’s daughter in Statesboro, about an hour’s drive to the west.