Hurricanes

08/13/20 • 39 min

Last week, Hurricane Isaias brushed past the Lowcountry but left a mess in the Grand Strand. And while it didn't prompt evacuations or major panic, Isaias was a clear reminder of the kind of storm season that's been brewing in the Atlantic Ocean.
It was the earliest "I" storm on record, meaning eight other named storms had already formed before it this year. During a typical year, named storms would only be on the letter "B" by early August.

The Aug. 3 storm also made 2020 the sixth straight year that a tropical storm has affected the Palmetto State's coast.

It traced a similar path to a couple close calls for the Charleston area in recent years: Hurricane Matthew in 2016 and Hurricane Dorian last year.

Senior projects reporter Tony Bartelme and reporter Chloe Johnson, who writes about the coastal environment and climate change, were able to offer some insight on what could be ahead in the months of hurricane season that are still yet to come.

We also talked about how the pandemic could play into evacuation plans if South Carolina ends up in the potential path of a larger storm this year — and what we should be considering now so that we're prepared.

Listen now to find out.

The Aug. 3 storm also made 2020 the sixth straight year that a tropical storm has affected the Palmetto State's coast.

It traced a similar path to a couple close calls for the Charleston area in recent years: Hurricane Matthew in 2016 and Hurricane Dorian last year.

Listen now to find out.

Previous Episode

Evictions

In South Carolina, renters have to be armed with cash to fight an eviction.
When tenants facing removal from their homes want to have their case heard in a higher court, they're often required to come up with thousands of dollars in a matter of days.
Ambiguities in the law make the issue particularly murky and lead to wide disparities in what tenants are required to pay. It could be as little as $0, or as much as all of the back rent a landlord says the tenant owes, plus another three months' rent up-front.
It's all up to the judges who handle these cases.
This week, we talked to reporter Thad Moore who recently read through court records from across the state to look for these types of cases. He found that, since the beginning of 2019, more than 120 tenants in South Carolina who were appealing their evictions had their cases thrown out because they couldn't come up with the money required.
We asked him about how this policy compares to the way other states handle eviction appeals, why some housing attorneys say the practice is unfair and what our watchdog reporters are looking out for as evictions become a key indicator to watch during the coronavirus pandemic.

Next Episode

100th Anniversary of the 19th Amendment — We the Women

This week marked 100 years since the 19th amendment was ratified, giving women the right to vote. Full electoral equality was still decades away, but Aug. 18, 1920 is still a major milestone in U.S. women's history.

To celebrate, The Post and Courier interviewed 19 women from around South Carolina. We talked with women in politics and business, activists and thought leaders.

This week on the podcast, we were joined by managing editor Autumn Phillips, who was one of the interviewers for the series, called "We the Women," to pick out some of the highlights.

We selected clips from seven of the interviews for this episode. You'll hear how Post and Courier editor Barbara Williams used to file her copy, why Dr. Mary Thornley of Trident Technical College says she'll never take the right to vote for granted and what Queen Quet of the Gullah/Geechee Nation thinks of this recent period of protests in America.
Listen now to find out.

You can watch all 19 videos on our website or listen to the conversations in podcast form on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or wherever you listen. Just search for "Post and Courier Specials" and look for the "We the Women" logo.