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Port Royal, South Carolina

19 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1944 and the latest in 1998. It stands in the Beaufort-Port Royal census division. It lies in ZIP code area 29935. It stands on Battery Creek. The Survey maps it on the Beaufort quadrangle. 14,220 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 23 feet above sea level.

Port Royal within Beaufort County

On record in Port Royal

Buildings and businesses the archive holds for this place. Each opens its own page, with the source record it came from.

On the National Register 4 records

Surveyed buildings and structures 1 record

Population over time

2 figures

Port Royal grew from 10,678 to 14,220 between 2010 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate, and an estimate published within five years of a census is left out. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.

YearPeople Change
201010,678
202014,220+3,542 (+33%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

10 surveys from 19 printed sheets

Matched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.

Fires near this place

96 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 96 fires within 5 miles of Port Royal between 1992 and 2020, burning about 329 acres in total. 1 started naturally. 21 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause Fires
Debris and open burning37
Missing data/not specified/undetermined22
Arson/incendiarism21
Misuse of fire by a minor11
Recreation and ceremony2
Natural1
Equipment and vehicle use1
Fireworks1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
9 August 2002Debris and open burningunder an acreSouth Carolina Forestry Commissionnot named
7 August 1999Arson/incendiarism2.0 acresSouth Carolina Forestry Commissionnot named
5 August 2008Debris and open burningunder an acreSouth Carolina Forestry Commissionnot named
2 August 2001Debris and open burning8.0 acresSouth Carolina Forestry Commissionnot named
14 August 2000Debris and open burning1.0 acresSouth Carolina Forestry Commissionnot named
5 July 1993Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresSouth Carolina Forestry Commissionnot named
3 July 1996Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresSouth Carolina Forestry Commissionnot named
29 July 2006Debris and open burning1.0 acresSouth Carolina Forestry Commissionnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Beaufort County

Storms near this place

30 since 1994

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Port Royal in 30 storm reports between 1994 and 2025: 16 thunderstorm wind, 5 hail, 5 lightning, 3 flash flood. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
July 2021Tornado (EF1)Port Royal$1,000,000A National Weather Service (NWS) storm survey team determined that an EF-1 tornado occurred near Port Royal in Beaufort County. This tornado was likely part of the same storm that hit Parris Island just to the south. It began near 11th Street, between Paris and London Avenues, where it snapped several trees including one tree that hit a home on 11th Street. The tornado continued northward across 14th and 15th Streets, close to Paris Avenue. Many hardwood trees and large limbs were snapped in this area, which also took down some powerlines along Paris Avenue. The tornado then moved across the southern portion of Paris Avenue West, snapping more trees and limbs with some falling on a few homes and buildings. Finally, the tornado crossed Ribaut Road, ending just north of the intersection of Ribaut and Royal Palms Roads. All total, the tornado damaged at least 44 buildings in Port Royal and caused an estimated one million dollars in damage. The maximum strength of the tornado was estimated to be EF-1, with peak winds of 95 mph.
July 2019Thunderstorm WindPort Royal$20,000Beaufort County Emergency Management reported a tree down on power lines at 16th Street and Old Shell Road. There were also two trees down on a residence on 17th Street.
August 2009Thunderstorm WindPort Royal$12,000Broadcast Media relayed a report of trees down on a house and power lines on Paris Avenue in Port Royal, South Carolina.
June 1994Thunderstorm WindPort Royal$5,000no account filed
July 2006Thunderstorm WindPort Royal$2,000Powerlines down.
June 2021Thunderstorm WindPort Royal$1,250A Beaufort County emergency manager reported live power lines down near the 1600 block of Edinburgh Avenue.
July 2025Thunderstorm WindPort Royal$1,000Beaufort County Emergency Management reported a tree down on Stuart Towne Lane.
August 2022LightningPort Royal$1,000The Beaufort County 911 Call Center reported a lightning striking a tree and igniting a small fire near the Navy Hospital.
June 2021Thunderstorm WindPort Royal$1,000A Beaufort County emergency manager reported a tree down near the intersection of Richard Avenue and 15th Street in Port Royal.
July 2019LightningPort Royal$1,000Beaufort County dispatch reported that lightning struck a building on Richmond Avenue.
August 2019LightningPort Royal$1,000An emergency manager reported lightning struck a home. The extent of damage was minor, but one individual was displaced.
August 2019LightningPort Royal$1,000An emergency manager reported a residence struck by lightning, resulting in minor damage.
August 2025Flash FloodPort Royal-The Beaufort County 911 Call Center reported a car stalled on West Paris Avenue due to a flooded roadway.
August 2022Flash FloodPort Royal-The Beaufort County 911 Call Center reported water in a residence on Stuart Towne Lane.
January 2021Thunderstorm WindPort Royal-A trained spotter reported several large tree limbs down near Ballard Circle. The largest of the limbs was approximately 8 feet in length and 4 inches in diameter.
June 2021Thunderstorm WindPort Royal-A Beaufort County emergency manager reported a tree down on Bay Drive.
June 2016Thunderstorm WindPort Royal-Law enforcement reported a tree through the roof of Port Royal Elementary School. Trees also fell onto residences along Ribaut Road and Ridenour Place in Port Royal.
July 2015Thunderstorm WindPort Royal-Multiple trees were reported down in the Port Royal area.
June 2014Thunderstorm WindPort Royal-Law enforcement reported trees down.
August 2011Thunderstorm WindPort Royal-A tree fell on a vehicle on Waddel Road.
March 2011HailPort Royal-The Public reported golf ball size hail in Port Royal, South Carolina.
March 2011HailPort Royal-The Public reported quarter size hail in Port Royal, South Carolina.
March 2011HailPort Royal-A trained weather spotter reported dime to nickel size hail with a few golf ball size hail stones at the South Carolina National Golf Club, 2 miles east-northeast of Parris Island, South Carolina.
March 2011HailPort Royal-The Public reported quarter to tennis ball size hail in Port Royal, South Carolina.
June 2003LightningPort Royal-Lightning struck a power line and traveled through the line to a Coca-Cola bottling plant in Port Royal. Two fires were started which caused some damage to the building.
July 2003Flash FloodPort Royal-Several hours of very heavy rainfall dropped 4 to 6 inches of rain across parts of the county. In Port Royal, many roads were flooded, several cars were swamped, and a restaurant took in 2 to 4 feet of water
June 2001Thunderstorm WindPort Royal-Power lines down.
July 1998Thunderstorm WindPort Royal-Powerlines down.
April 1998HailPort Royal-no account filed
June 1994Thunderstorm WindPort Royal-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Beaufort County

Newspapers printed here

433 digitised pages

3 papers published in this town, digitised by the Library of Congress and free to read: 108 issues, 433 pages. Every page is searchable, so a name or a street can be looked for directly in what the town printed about itself at the time.

What the paper printed

22,039 words

Front pages of the local paper, read from the Library of Congress scans: 12 issues spread across its run from 1862 to 1874, 22,039 words in total. Each is reproduced on its own page, exactly as the recogniser returned it.

These pages read less well than anything else here, and the number is worth stating: about three words in four come through cleanly, against nine in ten for the building records. An 1896 broadsheet sets eight-point type in seven columns on microfilm, which is the hardest thing in this archive to read by machine. We tested our own recognisers against the Library's and they were not better, so the Library's text is what appears, with the wholly unreadable columns removed. Read it as a guide to what the paper covered, and follow the link to the scan before quoting anything.

IssuePaper Length
1862-03-15The New South1,589 words
1862-09-13The New South1,152 words
1862-10-25The New South1,296 words
1862-11-15The New South1,178 words
1864-04-21The Palmetto Herald1,381 words
1864-06-30The Palmetto Herald1,380 words
1864-07-28The Palmetto Herald1,360 words
1864-12-22The Palmetto Herald1,215 words
1873-11-06Port Royal Commercial and Beaufort County Republican2,950 words
1873-11-20Port Royal Commercial and Beaufort County Republican2,322 words
1873-12-11Port Royal Commercial and Beaufort County Republican2,772 words
1874-04-30Port Royal Commercial and Beaufort County Republican3,444 words

Nearest settlements

The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.

Map PlaceDistance Sheets
Mariners Watch0.3 miles19
Riverwind1.2 miles19
Waterford Place1.2 miles19
Port Royal Landing1.4 miles19
Battery Marina Village1.4 miles19
Magnolia Bluff1.8 miles19
Orange Grove2.2 miles19
Shell Point2.3 miles19

Elsewhere

Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.

Wikipedia article on Port RoyalAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q926275The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0).

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 1250223. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.

Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.

Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.