USC Salkehatchie Closes Allendale Campus Due to Severe Weather Threat

USC Salkehatchie shuttered its Allendale and Walterboro campuses on March 16 as the National Weather Service warned of a severe storm window stretching from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., with possible hail, wind gusts reaching 60 to 75 mph, and isolated tornadoes threatening the region.

The closure, announced through the university's Instagram account, covered administrative offices, classes, and all campus activities for the day. "Due to the potential for severe weather in our region, both the Walterboro and Allendale campuses of USC Salkehatchie will be closed on Monday," the post read.

USC Salkehatchie was not alone in its response. The Clarendon County School District declared March 16 an eLearning day for all students and staff, closing every school and district office and canceling athletic events and field trips. Sumter School District made the same call, according to a district spokeswoman, citing the same National Weather Service forecast and the same hazards: hail, damaging wind gusts, and the possibility of tornadoes.

A key factor in those K-12 decisions was explicit guidance from the South Carolina Department of Education, which advises school districts to limit bus operations whenever sustained winds exceed 30 mph or gusts exceed 40 mph. With forecasters projecting gusts nearly double that upper threshold, keeping buses off roads was not a close call.

The breadth of closures across two school districts and a two-campus regional university reflects how seriously local institutions took the March 16 threat. Clarendon County students were directed to complete assignments posted through Google, though the district's announcement did not specify the exact platform. No information was available about when USC Salkehatchie expected to resume normal campus operations, and the university had not released additional guidance in the research available.