Gov. Sanford Leaves Convention Because of Storm

Gov. Mark Sanford left the Republican National Convention in St. Paul Wednesday morning to come back to South Carolina because of the threat to the state from Hanna.

By: Robert Kittle | News Channel 7
Published: September 03, 2008

Gov. Mark Sanford was scheduled to speak at the Republican National Convention Monday night, but that night's agenda was cut short and his speech was postponed because of Hurricane Gustav's landfall in Louisiana. His speech was rescheduled for Thursday night, but now that won't happen either, again because of a storm. He left the convention Wednesday morning because of the potential threat to the state from Tropical Storm Hanna.

"The bottom line is this storm has been wobbling. There's a lot of uncertainty as to exactly where it's going to go and what it's going to do," he told News Channel 7. "And given that level of uncertainty, I decided I need to be back."

He had been getting frequent updates and briefings from the state Emergency Management Division, which stepped up the state's preparations for Hanna by moving to a higher alert level, Opcon 3, Wednesday morning. Operating condition 3 means the state's Emergency Operations Center outside Columbia is fully operational, with state and federal agency staff members there around the clock.

"We're still in that planning and preparation stage, but we're examining what each agency has, what each organization has, and how quickly it could get to an affected area," says Derrec Becker, Emergency Management Division spokesman.

For example, the Highway Patrol has troopers at the EOC going over possible evacuation routes and making sure enough troopers are where they need to be. Any evacuation decision is up to Gov. Sanford, who says, "Our evacuation decisions will be driven by, obviously, intensity of storm, but overlaid on top of time and tide as to when it's going to arrive." He says an evacuation order is far from certain since Hanna is likely to be at most a Category 1 hurricane when it makes landfall. But if it were to hit at high tide, the storm surge could cause flooding. All of that will factor into his decision.

Gov. Sanford has also been talking to federal emergency officials, including Homeland Security Director Michael Chertoff, and says the federal response is also ready. The South Carolina National Guard has 2,500 soldiers on alert in case they're needed.