CONWAY, SC (WBTW) – Officials with Horry County Fire Rescue met this week to discuss what worked, and what they want to improve on for the next major storm in our area.
After-action meetings are standard for emergency agencies and Tony Casey, with Horry County Fire Rescue, tells News13, it’s a way for them to learn from each activation.
“We were able to group together with all of the people who were really involved in our Dorian response, get recommendations, get solutions, just really talk out how we handled things, how we can get better and what we’re going to do next time,” Casey said.
While Dorian wasn’t as destructive in much of our area as many anticipated it would be, first responders learn from every storm and treat each one like practice for the next, Casey said.
The majority of the calls the department responds to during storms like Dorian are downed power lines and trees in the road.
Casey says HCFR also assisted crews in North Myrtle Beach during the string of tornadoes that hit that area in the morning hours of September 5th.
Something the Department changed coming into this hurricane season is making sure each station in the County has a generator.
Casey tells News13, this ensures that all of the first responders stationed across the County can be comfortable in knowing that they won’t lose power while working long shifts.
He added, having this equipment in every station is a step in the right direction.
Something else the department did different for Hurricane Dorian than they did in the past, was visiting stations right before the storm activation.
“Chief Tanner got in his car and we went around to 16 of our stations in something like four hours, which is something really unprecedented to make that difference to get out there and talk with our people, find out what they need and what they’re going to need moving forward,” Casey said.
