Gov. Henry McMaster on Friday declared a state of emergency for South Carolina as a winter storm crossed the Palmetto State.
Snow and sleet fell on parts of South Carolina early Friday, blanketing parts of the Upstate in white and dropping freezing rain on the CSRA and Midlands.
"Our state's emergency teams are fully prepared, and this State of Emergency will provide them additional support to respond to the winter weather moving across our state," McMaster said in a statement Friday.
Winter Storm warnings are in effect and many areas are already seeing winter weather impacting roadways. Stay home if you don’t need to travel and if you do need to be on the roadways, stick to interstate and primary routes, plan your travel in advance and drive with caution. pic.twitter.com/g9bdn8Nk0x
— SCDOT (@SCDOTPress) January 10, 2025
The National Weather Service said sleet and freezing rain will continue throughout Friday in the Midlands and the CSRA, resulting in icy roads that could worsen driving conditions.
State Transportation Secretary Justin Powell said Friday that crews pretreated the roads over the last couple of days, but he urged drivers to stay home if possible.
Powell said DOT started 24-hour operations at 7 a.m. Friday, and put emergency wreckers on Interstate 26 heading northwest into town and Interstate 85 for stranded drivers.
"As this storm is coming in, if you don't have to drive, don't drive right now," Powell said. "Stay off the roads. Be safe."
If stranded on the roads, drivers can call the DOT's 24-hour call center hotline at 1-855-GO-SCDOT.
A winter storm will continue to bring accumulating snow today from eastern Oklahoma through the Mid-South and southern Appalachians, and ice accumulation across southern Arkansas through parts of the Southeast through Saturday morning. pic.twitter.com/BCuy0GH6nV
— National Weather Service (@NWS) January 10, 2025
