Lessons learned from past storms help to prepare the state
By Bill Davis, senior editor | South Carolina seems to be getting better and better at emergency and disaster response, unfortunately because of repeated practice.
Mike Couick, president and chief operating officer of the The Electric Cooperatives of South Carolina, said South Carolina has had to deal with an ice storm, “a deluge of Biblical proportions” from last October’s floods, and Hurricane Matthew in the past 28 months.
But unlike past botched disaster responses, such as the traffic snarl for people fleeing the Lowcountry 17 years ago for Hurricane Floyd, there has been no real public outcry criticizing the state’s response earlier this month after Matthew. Instead, Gov. Nikki Haley and various state agencies have been widely complimented on their responses
Part of that was due to the state learning from past mistakes, according to several observers. Opening I-26 both ways from the coast heading west, for instance, was met with widespread support, as it eased traffic and didn’t result in 2016 in cars running out of gas on the highway and evacuees having to evacuate themselves on the side of the road.
So what does South Carolina need to do to better respond to future dangerous weather events?
Some have discussed giving the governor’s office more teeth in its mandatory evacuation orders. Others are calling for an additional reserve fund to be set aside in the state budget to offset costly disasters. And conservationists are championing enhanced permitting processes and a keener eye on all development, private and public along the coast.
Eye of the political storm
State Rep. Bill Herbkersman (R-Bluffton) said that further enforcing evacuation orders “won’t fly” in South Carolina, because while it may be ill-advised for oceanfront residents to stay in their homes during a hurricane, “it’s their right to be crazy on their own property.”
Herbkersman, who refers to himself as an “eco-developer” in his online state legislature biography, was honored recently by the S.C. Coastal Conservation League (SCCCL) as a “coastal steward.”
He said he likes the idea of turning I-26 open both ways when people return from an evacuation, but understood Haley’s decision not to do so. Haley didn’t want a flood of returning evacuees to overload local roads, potentially hampering rescue and response efforts.
Herbkersman, who also serves on the Ways and Means Committee, said he would be interested into looking into creating an emergency response fund and potentially creating a list of those who can return early to an affected area “like citizens who work in hospitals, or groceries.”
State Sen. John Courson, a Columbia Republican who serves on Finance Committee, said he didn’t expect the idea of an additional fund being established to be widely supported.
“I would need to see some very specific documentation as to why we need to set aside another special pot,” Courson said.
The state budget currently has two reserve funds, but both are used primarily to offset end-of-year fiscal shortages in the state budget.
Picking up the tab
Georgetown County Emergency Management director Sam Hodges said he hoped the state helps with costs again. He said the legislature voted last year to cover the localities’ 25-percent matching funds for FEMA relief after Hurricane Joaquin. Now he said he hoped legislators would do the same in the wake of Hurricane Matthew.
“If its Horry or Charleston or Richland counties, they can come up with the extra $3-$4 million,” said Hodges, who has been working where the tree meets the road for the past 27 years. “But for smaller counties, past disasters have been a challenge.”
Thanks for everything
SCE&G spokesman Eric Boomhower said from his utility’s perspective, there was “nothing” the legislature or the governor needed to change, adding “we received outstanding support from Gov. Nikki Haley, the S.C. National Guard, the S.C. Emergency Management Division and the S.C. Highway Patrol before, during and after Hurricane Matthew impacted our state.”
Similarly Couick at the Electric Cooperatives said he couldn’t think of any needed changes.
“It’s hard to regulate a hurricane,” Couick said, adding that his organization had a higher overall number of power outages during Matthew than it did during Hurricane Hugo, but for far shorter periods.
“But we pretty much had all the systems up an running by the next Sunday, save for some areas suffering through flooding issues,” he said.
Courson said that past work done by state government, such as enhancing and better linking first responders’ communications systems following the terrorist attacks of September 11 paid off during Matthew.
But conservationist Lisa Jones Turanksy of the S.C. Coastal Conservation League warned that while hurricanes can’t be regulated, they aren’t going to stop.
“We even have a ‘season’ for them,” she said, before adding her praise to the work done by the state.
And with global warming, the intensification and pace of storms forming, it will be an issue the state will have to take a holistic approach in its future preparations, she said.
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