Dorchester County holds a multi-agency hurricane response simulation

DORCHESTER COUNTY, S.C. (WCBD) – Dorchester County and multiple agencies spent much of Tuesday testing communications and response to a simulated major hurricane impacting the county.

“This is the exercise… Hurricane Dexter here in Dorchester County where we’re simulating a very large hurricane coming ashore,” said Thomas McNeal, Dorchester Director of Emergency Management

The exercise centers on a fictitious Hurricane Dexter – a Hurricane Hugo-sized storm. It’s the first big exercise in Dorchester County’s new Emergency Operations Center.

“This is the first time we’ve ever come in to fully exercise and execute the emergency operations plan within the building. This is a large-scale exercise, and it took weeks for us to create it,” said McNeal.

Officials from various agencies, from healthcare to law enforcement, firefighting, and any other agencies that would be working together during a disaster responded to various scenarios. 

There were simulation rooms of crews calling into the EOC with various issues, like flooded communities or potential casualties.

“So, we have representatives here from throughout the county, the state, the Red Cross is here, that includes our municipalities,” he explained.

“We want to be stressed and strained because when the real event occurs, we want to be as prepared as possible,” said Dorchester County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Sam Richardson of the drill.

Officials say the purpose of this is to try to find ways they can improve their response during an actual emergency.

“The changes we’ve made to the emergency operations plan, we need to test those as well. So, the people in the room are also being tested to make sure that we are ready for whatever significant events may come,” said McNeal.

Officials said they learned a lot during Tuesday’s exercise and plan to use that information during actual emergencies in the future.