With Hurricane Matthew heading for the southeast coast of the United States after pounding several Caribbean islands, the governors of Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina have waived hours of service rules in their states.
“Gov. [Rick] Scott has signed an executive order, which relieves the hours of service and registration requirements for commercial vehicles involved in hurricane relief,” Florida Department of Transportation spokesman Jeff Frost wrote in an e-mail.
The day after Scott’s Oct. 4 order, tolls were suspended on nearly all of Florida’s toll roads and the mainline of Florida’s Turnpike for the duration of the storm, according to FDOT.
South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley waived HOS rules for the second time in five weeks. She had done so Sept. 1 in preparation for the arrival of Tropical Storm Hermine.
North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory also declared a state of emergency and suspended HOS rules to ensure “the uninterrupted supply of electricity, fuel oil, diesel oil, gasoline, kerosene, propane, liquid petroleum gas, food, water, livestock and poultry feed, and medical supplies to residential and commercial establishments.”
Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal followed suit on Oct. 5 for 13 counties in the Peachtree State, most likely to be affected by Matthew. As of 11:30 a.m. Oct. 6, evacuation plans have begun in Georgia and I-16 has been placed into a contra-flow. The contra-flow will only move west from Savannah, Ga. to Macon, Ga.
As of 10 a.m. Oct. 5, Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe had yet to take any action because the storm wasn’t projected to seriously affect his state.
