Aiken County under tropical storm warning due to Ian

Sep. 29—Aiken County was under a tropical storm warning Thursday evening as Ian headed toward South Carolina as a Category 1 hurricane.

Based on the cyclone's projected path, however, forecasters believed that this area would be safe from the worst of any bad weather.

"We have a pretty good feeling that the greatest impacts are going be in eastern South Carolina rather than the CSRA or western South Carolina," said Chris Rohrbach, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Columbia.

But he and his colleagues weren't ready to make any promises.

"The cone of uncertainty ... shows where the centers of storms historically go two-thirds of the time, so that still leaves a one-third chance that the center of this storm may go outside of the cone," Rohrbach said.

Because Ian's predicted track continued to shift eastward, the amount of rain anticipated in Aiken County decreased from previous forecasts.

The National Weather Service in Columbia was calling for 2 to 3 inches of precipitation in eastern Aiken County and 1 to 2 inches in the county's western portion.

"There may be a few spots in Aiken County that get some heavier amounts," Rohrbach said. "It just depends on how everything unfolds and where some of the heavier showers go."

The chance of rain in the Aiken area was expected to be 100% Friday, 90% Friday night and 60% Saturday.

Gusting winds could reach 40 miles per hour or higher locally, Rohrbach said.

Aiken County Emergency Management Director Paul Matthews also expressed more confidence about Ian's effects locally.

"It looks like its going to be a Friday, Friday night and possibly a little bit into Saturday event," he said. "We're still looking at the potential for spotty power outages. Anytime you get wind like this, you may have trees down on power lines.

"If you lose power and have a portable generator," he continued, "make sure it is outside (to prevent carbon monoxide poisoning indoors)."

There were no flood watches or warnings in Aiken County as of Thursday evening, but Matthews said he wanted to "strongly encourage people not to drive through standing water."

The county continued to prepare for Ian, and before midafternoon Thursday, three meetings were held in the Emergency Operations Center at the Aiken County Government Center.

"We had our coordination call at noon with the South Carolina Emergency Management Division and the National Weather Service," Matthews said. "Then we had a 1 p.m. National Weather Service briefing. Then there was a 2 p.m. meeting (at the local level) with Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster."

Gov. Henry McMaster declared a State of Emergency in South Carolina on Wednesday.

After slamming into Southwest Florida as an extremely destructive Category 4 hurricane Wednesday, Ian weakened and was downgraded to a tropical storm before regaining some strength over the Atlantic Ocean.

A hurricane warning was in effect for the entire coast of South Carolina on Thursday evening.