Latest / Saluda County Unplugged / Emergency Management and Preparedness
Transcript
- Josh Morton: Two years ago, Helene gave Saluda County a reminder we won't forget. You don't have to live at the beach to be in the path of a hurricane. And preparing for the next emergency starts long before the forecast turns serious. At the county level and around your kitchen table. Today, we're going to talk about what emergency management actually does. And a few things all of us can do now to make a difficult day a little more manageable. Welcome back to Saluda County Unplugged, where we shine a light on Saluda County government. I'm Rachel. And I'm Josh. We're taking a little different direction today. September is National Preparedness Month, and this week's calendar gives us two very real reasons to talk about it. September 22nd marked 37 years since Hurricane Hugo struck South Carolina in 1989. And this Sunday, September 27th, marks two years since Helene hit our community in 2024. We're also still in the historically busiest stretch of Atlantic hurricane season. So this feels like the right time to talk about how we prepare as a county and what that looks like for each of us at home. And this is part of my work outside this podcast. I serve as Saluda County's emergency management director. But I want this conversation to be useful whether you've lived here your whole life, moved here last month, or have never thought much about what an emergency management office does. You shouldn't have to understand governmental organizational charts to know how to protect your family. You need to know where reliable information comes from, what you might need, and what you'll do if your normal routine suddenly isn't possible. And that's what we're talking about today. Before we get into preparations, we need to acknowledge what this anniversary means. Helene brought more than property damage and inconvenience. Our county lost three lives, including Circle Fire Department Chief Chad Satcher and firefighter Landon Calebody. We remember them, the other life lost, and the families and friends who carry those losses every day. For people who lost someone or who went through a frightening experience, an anniversary can bring back a lot, so we want to approach this with care. We do. And when we talk about preparedness, we're talking about people. The point of a plan, a warning, or a supply kit is to help somebody get through a dangerous situation. The recovery update that I presented to County Council in October of 2024 described widespread blocked roads, damaged buildings, and power outages lasting from two days to two weeks. Our emergency operations center was open for 14 days. The county distributed water, meals, tarps, and emergency oxygen supplies to residents who needed them. Helene stretched us as a community. We're a rural county and we're an economically challenged community. We don't have a large pool of people, equipment, and other resources available here. When needs were spread across the entire county, it was impossible for emergency services to get to every single person. that's one of the most important reasons for this conversation. Being able to take care of your own basic needs for the first few days is really important. It gives your household some breathing room while emergency services work to reach people in danger. And while Hugo and Helene give us the anniversaries, this isn't just a hurricane conversation. Saluda County has also been impacted by ice storms, tornadoes, flooding, and other disasters. But regardless of the incident type, disasters can leave residents dealing with some of the same problems no electricity, difficult travel, or trouble getting the things you need. Exactly. We have to think about different hazards, including emergencies that aren't weather related. But a lot of the basic preparations carry over. If you've worked out how to reach your family, where to find reliable updates, and how to manage when the power's out, you've done something useful for more than one kind of emergency. You don't have to have a completely separate plan for every type of forecast. Let's start with the county's role. People see emergency vehicles responding. They see crews working after a storm, but what does emergency management do in between those moments? Our office identifies the hazards facing Saluda County and develops plans for dealing with them. Those plans are tested and refined. Public education, training, and exercises are all part of that work. Think about the questions a community has to answer. If several roads are blocked, how will that information reach the people who need it? If local resources are stretched, how will additional help be requested? If people need somewhere safe to go, how will they find out what's available? Those questions need attention before an emergency. When people already understand their responsibilities and how to reach one another, they have a better starting point for when conditions change. So all this preparation is a chance to discover a problem while you still have time to work on it. That's a great way to put it. Suppose a practice scenario shows that an important contact number is outdated, or that two groups have different expectations about who will pass along information. Finding that out ahead of time gives you a chance to fix it. A plan has to work for the people using it. It also has to make room for things that don't happen exactly the way we expected them to. A road you hope to use may be blocked. A facility may lose power. Someone you were counting on may be dealing with an emergency at their own home. That's why the relationships matter as much, if not more, than the written plans. The county describes emergency management in four parts. Mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery. Let's translate those for anybody who has never had a reason to use those words together. Mitigation means reducing the harm a future disaster can cause. Preparedness is getting ready through planning, training, and similar work. Response addresses the immediate emergency, and recovery is the work of restoring services and helping the community regain its footing. That last part can take years to accomplish. For a household, the same ideas might mean addressing a hazard around your home, making a family plan, taking shelter when directed, and then working through repairs afterwards. Different stages, but all part of protecting the people who live there. Let's come back to that emergency operations center. We mentioned that it was open for two weeks after Helene. What should listeners picture when they hear that term? Picture a place for bringing information and support needs together. The people responding in the field have immediate jobs to do. Coordination helps connect those jobs with the information and resources needed across the community. South Carolina's emergency operations plan provides for state assistance when needs exceed local capability. That connection between county and state operations matters in a widespread disaster. Here's a hypothetical example. A community needs supplies, but the most direct route is blocked. Knowing that supplies exist somewhere isn't enough. Somebody has to identify a safe route, coordinate transportation, and make sure the people receiving them know when and where to go. That is the kind of a practical problem that coordination is meant to solve, and that's the kind of thing we do in the emergency operations center. That brings us back to what you said about Helene stretching the county. We can have committed people working hard and still have more needs than they can reach at once. That's a difficult reality, but people need to understand it before the next emergency. Yes. We need households that can be self-sufficient for those first few days to prepare to do that. Have the supplies and arrangements you need to manage your basic needs while help is stretched across the community. And we know that some people have less money, less storage space, or needs that they can't meet without assistance. That's why planning with relatives, neighbors, and caregivers matters too. Self-sufficiency may include a support arrangement you've made ahead of time. if you're facing an immediate threat to life or safety, call 911. But don't build your whole plan around the assumption that emergency workers can arrive immediately. Helene showed us how difficult that can be. So let's bring this home. Somebody listening says, all right, I probably should do more, but where do I start? Start with what Helene taught us about communication. We had power outages and both cell service and landlines were disrupted. Having a phone didn't necessarily mean you could reach somebody. So talk about an ordinary day. Where would everybody be? At work, at school, at home, or somewhere else? If you couldn't reach one another, what would each person do? Choose a meeting place and an out-of-town contact everyone can check in with. Write down important numbers. A brief text can sometimes get through when a call won't, but it still needs a working connection. Talk through the plan together so one person isn't the only one who knows it. Have more than one way to communicate and think about what each option depends on. A charged phone is useful, but a charger can't fix a disrupted network. Another app on the same phone may depend on that same connection. Agree ahead of time on what to do if messages don't get through. That might mean staying in a safe place until travel is safe, then using your agreed meeting location. And make it fit the people actually living in your house. A family with a baby has different needs from a household where somebody uses medical equipment or needs help getting into a vehicle. It may help to walk through a few questions. Who could give us a ride? Where could we stay if home wasn't safe? What needs to leave with us? What about the pets? And if someone depends on powered medical equipment, work out backup arrangements with their health care provider and equipment supplier before an outage. Know the equipment's limits and where you could go if the backup isn't enough. Don't leave that decision until a battery is nearly empty. And include the person who needs assistance in the planning. They know their own needs and routines better than anyone. Now the kit. This is where people sometimes picture an expensive shopping trip and decide they'll get to it later. Start by checking what you already have. We recommend having at least three days of food and water. For water guidance, you should try to have two gallons per person per day, covering drinking, food preparation, and sanitation. Three days is a starting point. It isn't a promise that an outage or another disruption will be over by then. Build additional supplies as your budget, space, and household needs allow. Pick food your family will actually eat, and that doesn't depend on refrigeration or much preparation. Remember the manual can opener. Think about medications, glasses, baby supplies, and food and water for your pets. And put those things somewhere everyone can find them. Buying a flashlight is helpful. Knowing which drawer it disappeared into is also important. Have battery-powered lighting, spare batteries, and a way to charge your phone. A battery-powered or hand crank radio gives you another way to receive information. Then do a quick check every now and then. Does the light work? Is the charger charged? Have the family's needs changed? Supplies are more useful when you know they're ready. You can spread out the cost too. Use the next grocery trip to add something you know you'll need. Keep food in rotation so it gets used before it expires. Preparedness should feel like making steady progress. You don't have to buy everything at once to do something worthwhile today. Information belongs in your plan right alongside those supplies. The sources I want people to remember are the Saluda County Emergency Management Division, the South Carolina Emergency Management Division, and the National Weather Service. Get your emergency information from those reliable sources instead of relying on what happens to appear in your social media feed. You may see an official agency's updates on social media. Check who actually posted the information. An official update and a neighbor repeating something they heard aren't the same thing. There are a lot of well-intentioned Facebook pages that don't always get the information exactly right. Also, have a way to receive information when internet or phone service isn't working, such as a battery-powered radio and a NOAA weather alert radio. Those can help you receive updates, but they don't replace a way to contact your family. Start with the county's website at salutacounty.sc.gov, the state emergency management division at scemd.org, and the National Weather Service at weather.gov. Save those sources now while you still have a working connection. And when you're passing information along, check the date and the original source. An old post can look current when somebody shares a screenshot without context. That matters for things like road closures, supply distribution, and shelters. A location mentioned during a previous storm isn't automatically operating during the next one. Look for the current announcement before you travel. The same thing goes for a message claiming something is about to happen. Take a moment to verify it before sharing it with the whole neighborhood. People share things because they want to help. Making sure the information is current is part of helping. Let's cover a few things that matter after the immediate weather has passed. A clear sky can make it feel like the danger is over. It can, but damaged trees, power lines, and flooded roads can still be dangerous. Stay away from downed power lines. Don't drive through floodwater or around a barricade. Give crews room to work and follow instructions about where it's safe to travel. And if you use a generator, keep it outdoors, at least twenty feet away from doors, windows, and vents. Never run a generator inside a home or garage, even with the garage door open. Carbon monoxide can build up without you seeing it or smelling it. Having working carbon monoxide alarms with battery backups is also a good idea. That's worth deciding ahead of time too. Know where a generator can operate safely before you need it. Follow its instructions and don't improvise a setup in the middle of an outage. helping your neighbors matters as well. Make arrangements ahead of time to check on someone who might need assistance. That could be a relative who lives alone or a neighbor who maybe doesn't drive. But keep yourself safe while you're helping. A quick call or text might be the right first step when travel is dangerous. If someone has an immediate emergency, Call 911 rather than putting yourself into a situation you're not equipped to handle. Before we close, let's make this manageable. If you've listened this far, choose one thing to do this week. Have that household conversation. Write down your contacts. Check your supplies. Work out a backup arrangement for someone who needs extra support. Pick the thing you've been meaning to get around to and start there. Then build on it. The next emergency won't necessarily look like the last one, but we can carry what we've learned forward. At the county level, that means doing the planning and coordination work before it's urgently needed. At home, it means giving ourselves and the people we care about a few more options when the normal routine falls apart. We can't promise there won't be another difficult day, but we can do something today to help each other through it. Have questions or an idea for an upcoming episode? Email us at publicinfo at saludacounty.sc.gov. And in the spirit of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, don't panic and know where your towel is. We'll see you next time on Saluda County Unplugged.