North Texans in South Carolina cut visits short ahead of hurricane

Many North Texans are among those getting out of Hurricane Florence's path.

Flights from the Southeast Coast coming into to DFW Airport on Tuesday were filled with people who had to cut trips to the Carolinas short or attend colleges that have canceled classes.

The storm isn’t bound to make landfall until Thursday or Friday, but there are reports that Charleston's airport could close starting Wednesday night.

Caroline Greenblatt is a student at the College of Charleston who is back home in North Texas after being evacuated again.

“This is my third year in a row evacuating for a hurricane,” she said.

But this time, Greenblatt says it feels different.

“I even left on the late side. Just leaving this afternoon, it was pretty dead,” she said. “My apartment had already sandbagged the doors, and campus was pretty much empty.”

The powerful category 4 storm has folks along the Carolina coast rife with popular tourist beaches heeding warnings. As crews there sandbag and board up, much of the South Carolina coast is evacuated.

Donna Hill just got home from visiting her brother near Charleston.

“It kind of changed my vacation a little,” she said. “It was not as carefree.”

Many are staying in the area. Chrestina Cook's family is vacationing near Charleston from Irving. They were forced to evacuate inland from their beach house rental.

“You can look at it as an adventure,” Cook said. “But you have two boys here who want to go out on the water and want to go to the market.”

Florence is forcing a change in plans. Now, folks are just hoping they can go back to life as usual after it passes.

“The school said it hopes to reopen Monday. Hopefully, that is the case,” Greenblatt said. “There's not a lot of extensive damage because I hope to return Sunday.”

Multiple people said that while some of the tourists are worried, a lot of the folks who live there don't want to evacuate and are still hoping it misses a direct hit in South Carolina.