Charleston County is planning now for hurricane season and hopes to utilize new warning technology

CHARLESTON COUNTY, S.C. (WCBD) – The new year has just begun, but Charleston County is already preparing for hurricane season.

The county’s emergency management officials hope to install some new technology that would send emergency warnings directly to you.

Charleston County officials say the area is long overdue for a major hurricane, and the new director of emergency management, Justin Pierce, said they are prepared for the possibility of a Hurricane Hugo-level disaster.

“We got together and are starting to work so we can prepare for the maximum of maximums and scale down to what is appropriate,” said Justin Pierce, the director of Charleston County Emergency Management.

One new system the county has applied for through the Federal Emergency Management Agency is the ability to send an emergency alert to anyone’s phone in the county.

With the current system, you have to be registered for Charleston County alerts to receive the warning messages.

“Alert warning capabilities, which means our ability to reach everyone in the county and inform them when we do have storms coming to our area. One of the things that we want to do that by is getting certified and having an MOU with FEMA as part of their wireless emergency alerts system so we can send emergency alerts to anyone at any time,” said Pierce.

Pierce says he and his team have learned from the impacts of Hurricane Helene and Debby in other regions, and they will implement new ideas to prepare for any weather events here in Charleston.

“We know we need to find a better solution to increase our sheltering capacity. That’s been an issue here for a number of years, so we want to focus on that during this off-season. Also, debris management. When we do get a big storm, because it’s been so long from previous storms, we do anticipate a lot of debris that would impact our community, and we have to have credentialed sites of where to put debris. So we essentially have to find space within the county that everyone can agree upon of where to put it,” said Pierce.

Officials say their emergency management team will meet every three weeks to plan up until hurricane season begins.