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Newsr Hurricane Floyd is expected to strike or affect the following loca tions at the following approximate times: Thousands jam roadways seeking refuge from Floyd by Bruce Smith Associated Press Charleston, S.C. — Thousands of people fleeing Hurricane Floyd jammed highways Tuesday and coastal areas turned to ghost towns as few people waited to see if this storm would be worse than Hurricane Hugo that devastated the area 10 years ago. “We went through Hurricane Hugo,” said Jennifer Causey, stopping at a convenience store on the way out of Beau fort to buy drinks and snacks for her two children. She tried to secure the plastic tarp over the wedding photos, the new desk her 6-year-old daughter got for her birthday and other valuables in the back of her pickup. _ “We rode it out, but we never got hit like we’re fixing to get hit now,” she said. Causey, whose husband was leaving town with the Marines, said she was driving to her in-laws’ house in North Carolina. Beginning at noon, Gov. Jim Hodges ordered the evacuation of about 800,000 people along the coast. That included about lbo,UUU tounsts, said Joe banner, a state emer gency preparedness spokesman. Five houis later, the National Weather Service extended hurricane warnings to cover the en tire South Carolina coast. Floyd was moving west-northwest near 12 mph and was expected to turn gradually northwest. It remained a Category 4 storm, capable of producing extreme damage and severe beach erosion. Even before Hodges or dered people out, Brian Pou, who lives a block from the ocean in Folly Beach, was loading his car and heading to his parents’ home in Saluda, northeast of Columbia. “1 saw the pictures and all the news footage of Hugo; 1 don’t want any part of it,” he said. Charleston’s historic district, usu ally bustling with tourists and shoppers, was almost deserted ex cept for a few workers hammering plywood to protect old homes. “Floyd, Go Back to Mayberry,” read one sign scrawled on plywood protecting the windows of the Blind Tiger Pub. From the air, traffic was seen backed up for miles leaving Charleston. Roads were clogged as far away as Columbia, about 100 miles inland. The bottleneck was particularly bad where 1-26 crossed 1-95, which also was filled with evacuees from the Florida and Georgia coasts. Traffic moved so slowly out of Charleston that some people got out and walked their dogs as they wailed. Hodges, who flew to Myrtle Beach, Charleston and Beaufort after ordering the evacuation, said he would dis cuss opening eastbound lanes of 1-26 to westbound traffic when he returned to Columbia later in the day. But Charleston May or Joseph P. Riley Jr. was angry the highway was not fully opened “Out citizens deserve it; it is a necessity,” he said. The Holiday Inn in downtown Columbia received more than 200 phone calls Tuesday morning from coastal residents seeking shelter. “No one really wants to take a chance,” said Jamie Belvins, guest services manager. At the Comfort Inn near Columbia’s airport, desk clerk Ed Sookikian said all 62 rooms were booked. “’The last time I saw this was when Hugo hit,” Sookikian said. ‘ T thought our reservation computer had a panic attack.” At Berkeley County’s Cainhoy Elementary School, more than 20 people, mostly elderly, began filling a Red Cross shel Inr Tlmrdou uflnmAAH “The elderly are taking this seriously and coming out ear ly,” said Robbie Joyce with the Department of Social Services. Joyce, who manned a shelter during Hugo, said this time resi dents took the threat more seriously. In addition to 7,000 Marines evacuated from the Parris Is land training depot near Beaufort, about 7,500 Marines, sailors and their families were told to leave the Beaufort Marine Corps Air Station for safety. Fifty-seven fighter jets from the Marine Air Corps Station in Beaufort were flown to Fort Worth, Tex., to wait out the storm, while 60 planes left Shaw Air Force Base, 90 miles in land, for Wright-Patterson Air Force base in Ohio. The Port of Charleston closed to truck traffic at noon, and the Coast Guard ordered all commercial vessels out of the port by 4 p.m. Officials warned that drawbridges wouldn’t op erate when winds exceeded 25 mph. Vapor from a small phosphorous leak from a Charleston chemical plant tank complicated the evacuation along 1-26. The leak, about the size of a pencil eraser, occurred while crews filled tanks to make them as heavy as possible, said Carolyn Covey Morris, a spokeswoman for Albright & Wilson Americas. Firefighters later brought the leak under control. Though Floyd could bring much-needed rain to a state that has suffered through an 18-monlh drought, the stale Forestry Commission imposed a statewide burning ban, saying the possibility of high winds could create dangerous wildfire conditions. Special to The Gamecock Traffic moves slowly on 1-95 heading north from Savannah on Tuesday. Evacuations were mandatory for many coastal counties In Florida, Georgia and South Carolina P E S A R O sugg. ret. 4?” Hokus Pokus Apollo OQ99 sale sugg. ret. 34” SOME STYLES EXCLUDED. NOT VALID WITH ANY OTHER OFFER. STYLES AND COLORS MAY VARY BY LOCATION. RACK ROOM SHOES compare at 59” The Big Brands! The Big Savings! Outlet Pointe # Fashion Place m Harbison Court # Richland Fashion Mall m Columbia Mall Columbiana Mall (803)772-8236 (803)788-7407 (803)732-3644 (803)738-9952 (803)699-4950 (803)407-1326'