FLORENCE, SC (WBTW) – The Florence County emergency management team is adjusting its operation plans based on lessons learned from previous storms.
“Prepare year long. Always have your disaster kit ready and a family disaster plan, so you know what you’re going to do in the event of a disaster,” said Senior coordinator for FCEMD, Kristy Burch.
The team rolled out a new system called ‘EverBridge’, this will give residents the ability to target cell towers affected in the area and alert residents in case of an emergency.
“Nowadays with social media everything is instant. People know something is going on and they want to know what it is and with EventBridge they’ll be able to find that information,” said Burch.
The county has a department in place that works with a program called ‘DART’ which stands for, damage assessment rapid tool, to ensure faster damage reports with FEMA.
“They are able to go out and do damage assessment with an iPhone or an iPad and it works with satellite so that they’re able to go see exactly where they’re standing,” said Burch.
If you have no cellphone service or internet at time of the damage assessment, officials will still be able to help you.
“It will upload to our servers later and it’s an instant damage assessment and that information is compiled into the same time of form FEMA uses now, so we can submit the information to the state,” said Burch.
