SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) – State troopers were turning an interstate highway into a one-way escape route out of Savannah on Thursday as roughly 500,000 people were ordered to flee the Georgia coast ahead of dangerous Hurricane Matthew.
Gov. Nathan Deal ordered mandatory evacuations for all coastal residents east of Interstate 95 as the National Hurricane Center placed all 100 miles of coastal Georgia under a hurricane warning.
“Hurricane Matthew is a storm not to be messed with,” Savannah Mayor Eddie DeLoach said at Thursday morning news conference, where he urged residents to leave town. “If you decide to ride it out, do not expect us to be there to help you.”
It’s the first time a hurricane evacuation has been ordered for coastal Georgia since 1999, when the Savannah area had a near-miss with Hurricane Floyd.
As they did 17 years ago, the Georgia State Patrol and Department of Transportation worked Thursday to turn Interstate 16 into a one-way evacuation route away from the coast. DOT spokeswoman Jill Nagel said state troopers would route traffic westbound across all lanes of the interstate along a 125-mile stretch from Savannah to Dublin.
Traffic ran smoothly on I-16 without any changes Thursday morning, Nagel said, but she noted that fleeing motorists were expected not just from Georgia, but neighboring states as well.
“We’ve got evacuations from Florida and South Carolina, so we’re anticipating that influx to increase,” Nagel said.
The National Hurricane Center said coastal Georgia could begin seeing sustained winds of up to 65 mph by Friday morning. Forecasts called for a storm surge of 7 to 11 feet along coastal waters and 6 to 10 inches of rain. Matthew was forecast to pass dangerously close to the Georgia coastline Saturday morning.
Many coastal Georgians, particularly island residents, had already begun evacuating.
On Tybee Island, 18 miles east of Savannah, Loren Kook loaded his pickup truck with suitcases and a computer late Wednesday afternoon as he and his wife prepared to hit the road to metro Atlanta.
“It seems like a lot of the longtime residents are staying,” said Kook, who moved to the coast four years ago. “I’ve never sat through a Category Whatever. I’ll watch it on TV.”