The South Carolina Emergency Operations Center is still fully operational even though Hurricane Florence has weakened.
The EOC is the main point of preparation for the state, where all the agencies are working together to get all residents ready for the storm. More staff has been added, more resources have been deployed and more plans are being put in place at the EOC.
During Thursday’s press conference, agencies spoke on what each is doing during and after the storm.
Some key takeaways from today’s briefing:
- More than 420,000 people have left the coast since Tuesday when lane reversals that went in place.
- Since Monday, the National Guard has been adding more soldiers and airmen bringing the total to 2,600 soldiers, including 77 members of the Air National Guard, 80 state guard soldiers, and 20 from the Pennsylvania National guard.
- More than 400 state law enforcement officers are also in place to watch out for looting.
- Fire and rescue teams from Tennessee and Louisiana are in South Carolina to help with search and rescue missions after the storm.
Colonel Alvin Taylor, with the SC Department of Natural Resources, says “we realize that this is going to be a flood event, we are forecasting statewide heavy rain fall, so we’re in the process of preparing our DNR officers and state partners to respond to these communities where we will have flooding conditions.”
State fire has 750 search and rescue personnel ready to respond. Emergency management says they have 8,000 blue tarps for temporary roof replacement and over 275,000 sand bags to prevent flooding once rivers start to rise.