Hurricane Plan
I. INTRODUCTION
A. General. The policy of the Greenwood County is to be prepared for any emergency or disaster. South Carolina State Regulations 58-1 and 58-101 require contingency plans and implementing procedures for major hazards, such as hurricanes, led by the state and coordinated with counties that have a potential of being impacted. The Greenwood County Emergency Operations Plan (EOP) augmented by this hurricane plan, and the Emergency Support Functions (ESFs) Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), meet the requirements of the stated regulations.
B. This plan establishes specific policies and procedures to be followed by Greenwood County when responding to the threat of a tropical cyclone approaching South Carolina and immediately after impact. This EOP, augmented by the Greenwood County Emergency Recovery Plan, addresses post-landfall operations if Greenwood County is impacted by a hurricane. The Greenwood County Hurricane duplicates, in part, the State Plan and supplements actions necessary to be taken regarding tornadoes, flooding and high winds. These three possibilities are the threat to the county.
C. This complete plan is the hurricane hazard specific annex referred to in the EOP Basic Plan. It covers the threat, operations and sheltering terminology, the utilization of the Hurricane Evacuation Study as a basis for hurricane preparedness and planning, evacuation decision timeline, and phased evacuation decision factors. Individual annexes deal with Operating Conditions (OPCONs) and Shelters.
II. PURPOSE
To prevent or minimize injury to people and damage to property or to the environment resulting from a tropical cyclone by planning and coordinating the application of state and Greenwood County resources to warning, evacuating, and sheltering South Carolina citizens and visitors in harms way. Greenwood County’s threat analysis indicates our most common threat will be tornadoes, flooding, or high wind damage. Our supporting role for the coastal states is that we provide shelters and/or relocating county resources to support their recovery.
III. THREAT
A. South Carolina is susceptible to all levels of tropical cyclones, from tropical depressions to severe category 5 hurricanes. These tropical cyclones produce four major hazards: the storm surge, high winds, rainfall-induced flooding, and tornadoes. Greenwood County is susceptible to high winds, rainfall-induced flooding and tornadoes.
1. Winds. Hurricane winds can destroy buildings, mobile homes, and other property. Debris, such as signs, roofing material, siding, and other items become missiles in a hurricane. Wind is the greatest cause of property damage inland of the coast.
2. Rainfall-induced Flooding. Widespread torrential rains, often in excess of 6 inches, can produce deadly and destructive floods. Long after the winds have subsided, hurricanes can generate immense amounts of rain. In 1999, Hurricane Floyd produced high rainfall totals that resulted in devastating floods in South and North Carolina.
3. Tornadoes. While the threat exists for tornadoes to develop in all storm quadrants, they primarily develop in the northeast quadrant of the storm, possibly as much as 200-400 miles from the storm’s center of circulation. Tornadoes can potentially become very strong, causing extensive damage to buildings and loss of life.
IV. HURRICANE EVACUATION STUDY
A. General. The South Carolina Hurricane Evacuation Study (HES) prepared by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (COE) includes analyses of technical data concerning hurricane hazards, vulnerability of the population, public response to evacuation advisories, timing of evacuations, and sheltering needs for various hurricane threat situations. These analyses, all or in part, had significant impact on the South Carolina Hurricane Plan. The major analyses are: hazards, vulnerability, behavioral, shelter, and transportation analysis.
B. Hazards Analysis. The hazards analysis determines the timing and magnitude of wind and storm surge hazards that can be expected from hurricanes of various categories, tracks, and forward speeds.
C. Vulnerability Analysis. Using the results of the hazards analysis, the vulnerability analysis identifies those areas, populations, and facilities that are vulnerable to specific hazards under a variety of hurricane threats.
D. Behavioral Analysis. This analysis determined the expected response of the population threatened by various hurricane events in terms of the percentage expected to evacuate, probable destinations of evacuees, public shelter use, and use of available vehicles.
E. Shelter Analysis. The shelter analysis presents an inventory of pre-designated public shelter facilities, capacities of the shelters, vulnerability of shelters to storm surge, flooding, and shelter demand for each county. Greenwood County has designed two shelters and one special medical needs facility that are in a reserve status if the Governor dedicates a mandatory evacuation of the coastal regions.
H. Transportation Analysis. The principal purpose of the transportation analysis was to determine the time required to evacuate the threatened population (clearance times) under a variety of hurricane situations and to evaluate traffic control measures that could improve the flow of evacuating traffic. We can use these calculations to determine timing for opening our reserve shelters.
V. CONCEPT OF OPERATIONS
A. Conglomerate Operations.
For hurricane-related activities, South Carolina operates on a regional basis. These regions are called the Southern Coastal Conglomerate, the Central Coastal Conglomerate, the Northern Coastal Conglomerate, and the Western Hurricane Conglomerate. Greenwood County is part of the Western Conglomerate. Other counties within the group are: Abbeville, Anderson, Cherokee, Chester, Chesterfield, Edgefield, Fairfield, Greenville, Kershaw, Lancaster, Laurens, McCormick, Newberry, Oconee, Pickens, Saluda, Spartanburg, Union, and York.
B. Hurricane evacuations are planned and conducted on a conglomerate basis, meaning that inland conglomerate counties support the coastal county evacuations through evacuation route traffic control and evacuation shelter operations. Evacuation routes have been developed which originate in coastal counties and flow generally east -west through inland counties of the same conglomerate. When executed, evacuations take place as a conglomerate, whereby all coastal counties within each conglomerate simultaneously conduct evacuation operations.
C. Evacuation Clearance Times are also calculated and employed on a conglomerate basis, whereby the most restrictive (longest) conglomerate clearance time for the given storm category and tourist occupancy percentage is used to plan the dates and times of recommended mandatory and voluntary evacuations. When more than one conglomerate will evacuate, the longest clearance time in any evacuating conglomerate will be used to plan evacuation start dates and times.
D. Greenwood County adopts the evacuation terminology used in the State plan. Purpose is to prevent confusion and misunderstanding regarding evacuation issues. Affected County ESF primaries and supporting departments and/or agencies will become familiar with these terms:
1. Estimated Evacuation Clearance Times. Clearance time begins when the first evacuating vehicle enters the road network and ends when the last evacuating vehicle reaches an assumed point of safety.
2. Evacuation Zones. Areas in coastal counties vulnerable to storm surge inundation and rainfall-induced flooding.
3. Hurricane Tracking Tools. Several computer programs are used to track hurricanes during the life of a tropical storm. The primary program used in South Carolina is HURREVAC.
4. Voluntary Evacuation. In the event a hurricane begins to pose a threat to the coast, local officials or the Governor can recommend that those citizens who feel uncomfortable about the storm leave the area. This action is considered a voluntary evacuation. During a voluntary evacuation, voluntary evacuation shelters will be opened.
5. Mandatory Evacuation. The Governor is the only person legally authorized to order and compels evacuation in South Carolina. The SCEMD Director will recommend to the Governor that a mandatory evacuation be ordered, and will propose a timetable. During a mandatory evacuation, mandatory evacuation shelters will be opened in accordance with this plan.
6. Lane Reversal. Altering the flow of traffic in a manner that traffic on all available lanes is moving in the same direction. Based on the situation, information and recommendations provided by the Emergency Traffic Management, ESF-16, the SCEMD Director will assess the situation and in coordination with SCDPS and SCDOT, as well as the impacted counties, make a recommendation to the Governor regarding implementation of the reversal plan.
7. Counter Flow. Altering the flow of traffic in such a manner to allow for at least one lane of traffic to remain in the normal flow direction. On a four-lane highway, three lanes of traffic would move in one direction with one lane moving in the opposite direction.
8. Protective Relocation. Inland counties are not vulnerable to the storm surge; however, they are at risk to high winds and rain-induced flooding associated with hurricanes. In order to protect this population, it may be necessary to relocate those living in vulnerable structures or low-lying areas. The decision to issue a protective relocation order is the responsibility of each inland county’s public officials based on local authority. The SEOC will assist and provide guidance and recommendations.
9. Reentry. Reentry is the transition from evacuation and landfall to the recovery phase. Once the threat of the hurricane has passed or the hurricane has made landfall and initial damage assessment reports are evaluated, the SCEMD Director will recommend that the Governor rescind the mandatory evacuation order and advise citizens to refer to local officials for direction on reentry. A recommendation to the Governor regarding reversing roadway lanes eastbound is based on initial damage assessments and guidance from the Emergency Traffic Management, ESF-16. Although the SEOC will immediately begin coordination of reentry operations, reentry is managed at the local level.
10. Voluntary Evacuation Shelter. In the event that the Governor recommends a voluntary evacuation, all voluntary evacuation shelters within the impacted conglomerate will be prepared to open within four hours.
11. Mandatory Evacuation Shelter. In the event a mandatory evacuation is ordered by the Governor, all mandatory evacuation shelters within the impacted conglomerate will be open within four hours of the mandatory evacuation decision. All voluntary shelters remain open.
12. Reserve Shelter. In the event that the demand for shelters exceeds the capacity of the voluntary and mandatory evacuation shelters, reserve shelters will be opened. This might occur because of a higher than anticipated shelter demand or because of a major hurricane (category 3-5). The State EOC will notify Greenwood County EOC of the need for opening our reserve shelters.
13. Shelter Emergency Capacity. The number of evacuees that a shelter can accommodate. During a hurricane landfall event, capacity is based on 20 square feet per person.
14. Sheltering Requirement. An estimate of the vulnerable population needing shelter within each conglomerate. This value is a planning tool for the population that can be accommodated by the shelter emergency capacity.
E. To ensure that all organizations within South Carolina have coordinated response activities, the following OPCONs are followed. Greenwood County adopts and complies with State OPCON guidance. State Plan is restated for County Planners information any additions are underlined.
1. OPCON 5: This OPCON indicates that the SEOC and County EOC are at normal day-to-day operations. Prior to hurricane season, all hurricane plans will be reviewed and points of contact/telephone numbers verified. During hurricane season, all storms are tracked and monitored at this level.
2. OPCON 4: Once it is determined that a storm poses a possible threat to SC, the SEOC and affected County EOCs will move to OPCON 4. The primary events that will occur at this level are the notification of key personnel of the hazard, and initiation of preparatory activities. EOCs will be under “Partial Activation,” primarily staffed by emergency management personnel. Greenwood County EOC will monitor situation and the Public Safety Commander will make the determination if we move to higher state of readiness. EOC Manager will begin review of the County Recovery Plan and staffing of the EOC in accordance with guidance in the County’s Operating Conducts Procedures contained in Tab A to Appendix 2 of the County Hurricane Plan.
3. OPCON 3: Once public officials have sufficient information that a storm poses a significant threat to SC, the SEOC and affected County EOCs will move to OPCON 3. This decision will be based on each individual storm’s characteristics. EOCs will be under “Limited Activation,” staffed by emergency management personnel and key support agencies. The primary events that will occur in this stage include evacuation discussions (including voluntary evacuation and mandatory evacuation), holding pre-evacuation conferences and other preparatory activities. Greenwood County EOC will monitor situation and the Public Safety Commander will make the determination if we move to higher state of readiness. EOC Manager will begin review of the County Recovery Plan and staffing of the EOC in accordance with guidance in the County’s Operating Conducts Procedures contained in Tab A to Appendix 2 of the County Hurricane Plan.
4. OPCON 2: Once a state-level decision is made that a voluntary evacuation or mandatory evacuation order is imminent, the level automatically moves to OPCON 2. EOCs will be under "Full Activation" at this level. Greenwood County EOC will monitor situation and the Public Safety Commander will make the determination if we move to higher state of readiness. EOC Manager will begin review of the County Recovery Plan and staffing of the EOC in accordance with guidance in the County’s Operating Conducts Procedures contained in Tab A to Appendix 2 of the County Hurricane Plan.
5. OPCON 1: Once a voluntary evacuation recommendation or mandatory evacuation order is announced to the public, the level automatically moves to OPCON 1. At this level, the SEOC and County EOCs will coordinate the evacuation. EOCs will remain at OPCON 1 through storm landfall, reentry and into the response phase. Greenwood County EOC will monitor situation and the Public Safety Commander will make the determination if we move to higher state of readiness. EOC Manager will begin review of the County Recovery Plan and staffing of the EOC in accordance with guidance in the County’s Operating Conducts Procedures contained in Tab A to Appendix 2 of the County Hurricane Plan.
G. The Evacuation Decision Timeline describes the major activities leading to hurricane evacuation decisions. For further information on State Evacuation Decision Timeline refer to the State Hurricane Plan.
H. Procedural Agreements. (State Plan restated for County Planners for information only)
1. Conglomerate Evacuations. If the Governor determines the situation requires a mandatory evacuation, the SCEMD Director will recommend that the order be based on conglomerates, not on individual counties. The SCEMD Director will recommend that the Governor order the evacuation of one, two, or all coastal conglomerates. In addition, all conglomerate counties agree to participate in their conglomerate evacuation if it is ordered. This agreement is critical to the successful development and implementation of the South Carolina Hurricane Plan.
2. Operating Condition Levels. The counties within each conglomerate will function as a team. When one member county moves to a higher OPCON, all counties within the conglomerate will consider moving to the higher level. The SEOC will assess the situation and consider moving to a higher OPCON level if a county moves to one. The SEOC and county EOCs are not required to remain at the same OPCON. Operational considerations inherent in state-level evacuation preparations often require the state to move to a higher
OPCON level earlier than county EOCs.
3. Communications and Information. Within each conglomerate, one county has been designated as the lead county. This designation is based primarily on the county with the longest evacuation time within each conglomerate. During hurricane operations, the lead county should inform all other conglomerate counties and the SEOC of their current status. If this is not feasible, the conglomerate county EOCs should refer to SEOC situation reports in WebEOC for county status. The SEOC will consider providing a Liaison Officer to each conglomerate lead county EOC to assist in disseminating information among the conglomerate counties and to serve as a conglomerate point of contact to the SEOC.
4. During OPCON 4 and higher, the SEOC will schedule conference calls with the coastal county EOCs. County EOCs to be included are Jasper, Beaufort, Hampton, Colleton, Charleston, Dorchester, Berkeley, Georgetown, and Horry. The format for these calls is first the latest hurricane forecast will be reported by the National Weather Service, SEOC Chief of Operations will report SEOC status, county directors will report local operational status and raise concerns/issues regarding hurricane operations, and the Director will discuss executive level evacuation decision or reentry status. Once the area to be evacuated is determined, the SEOC will schedule a conglomerate conference call to discuss evacuation operations.
5. Emergency Public Information. (State Plan restated for County Planners information only. Any County input will be underlined)
a. To prevent or minimize hurricane-related loss of life, damage to property, and harm to the environment in South Carolina, government on all levels will provide consistent, coordinated, accurate, and timely information to the at-risk public. The information flow will begin long before the existence of an imminent hurricane threat, it will intensify as a hurricane approaches, and it will continue in the storm’s aftermath. This plan focuses on pre-landfall and reentry issues.
b. Prior to and during initial hurricane threats, the public will be made aware of potential ill effects and of actions necessary to safeguard lives and property. As a hurricane approaches, the public will be advised of prudent protective actions. After a storm departs, evacuees will be informed of when and on what routes they can return home.
c. The following State agencies are key to the successful coordination and conveyance of accurate information to the public during a large-scale coastal evacuation and reentry: 1. The South Carolina Governor’s Office 2. The SCEMD. 3. The Department of Public Safety (DPS). 4. The Department of Transportation (DOT). 5. The Department of Natural Resources (DNR). 6. The National Guard. 7.The Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism (PRT). 8. The Department of Commerce (DOC). 9. The Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC). 10. The Department of Insurance (DOI). 11. The Department of Social Services (DSS). 12. Educational Television/Radio Network (ETV), and, if the evacuation occurs when public schools are in session, the Department of Education (DOE). Also key are county emergency management agencies and volunteer organizations including the American Red Cross. All aforementioned agencies and organizations will provide mutual copies of all news releases issued during the approach of a tropical storm, during the evacuation process, and during reentry.
d. Upon the Declaration of a State of Emergency by the Governor, ESF-15, Public Information, led by SCEMD, will be the primary coordinating element in the dissemination of public information during emergency and disaster operations, with the advice and consent of the Governor’s Press Secretary (ref. S.C. Emergency Operations Plan, Basic Plan, VII, E.), who reserves the authority to intervene, to assume control, or to disseminate supplementary public information at any time. The SEOC will request state-level activation of the Emergency Alert System when appropriate.
e. State government information of greatest public interest during evacuation and reentry includes, but is not limited to: voluntary and mandatory evacuation orders (primary source Governor’s Office, SCEMD), road closures (primary source DOT), traffic management (primary source DPS), law enforcement (primary source SLED), shelter locations and availability (DSS, American Red Cross Hurricane Watch), school closures (DOE), water quality and nursing home issues (DHEC), bridge closures (DOT, DNR), boating restrictions (DNR), state office closings (Governor’s Office), state park closures (PRT), insurance issues (DOI). Private sector information of great public interest includes that regarding employers’ hours and days of operation; insurance coverage; power outages; telephone service; nursing home, hospital, and other health-care facilities; accommodations for pets; and motel availability. NOTE: Greenwood County EOC will be the focal point for obtaining necessary information regarding above identified responsible state agencies. The EOC Manager will insure he establishes contact with above agencies and keeps the Public Safety Commander informed on issues affecting Greenwood County.
f. In general, state government news releases will be issued to the media statewide and to national and international media as appropriate, with priority consideration given to the media most able to effectively communicate with the at-risk population. Example press releases and EAS messages can be found in Annex 1, State Operating Conditions. Refer to Tab A to Appendix 2 of the County Hurricane Plan for county guidance.
VI. PLAN DEVELOPMENT AND MAINTENANCE
A. General. This plan is the principal source of documentation concerning the Greenwood County’s hurricane emergency activities. The American Red Cross has assisted in the development of this plan. The county emergency preparedness will annually review this plan at the end of each hurricane season (November 30). At a minimum, this plan will be reviewed and updated on an annual basis. Annual review and update/revision will be completed prior to June 1.