A First Person Look at Emergency Response to Hurricane Joaquin

On October 1 to 5, 2015, South Carolina had a historic rainfall when Hurricane Joaquin lingered over the state. Eleven trillion gallons of rain fell.  South Carolina’s governor called the storm that hit South Carolina in early October a “1,000-year flood.” The storm left much of the state between Columbia and Charleston underwater, with parts of the Lowcountry getting more than two feet of rainwater and Columbia up to 16 inches. Dams failed, ponds overflowed and major rivers crested. Hundreds of roads, bridges and huge sections of interstates closed, including a 70-mile stretch of I-95. Lloyd Mitchell, representing the Forestry Conservation Communications Association (FCCA) on NPSTC’s Governing Board, served with the South Carolina Incident Management Team, and provided a first-hand view of the challenges faced, responses provided, and lessons learned during the devastation caused by Hurricane Joaquin.

For the past week, I was tasked to be Logistics Chief with our SC Incident Management Team (IMT) assisting Columbia Fire Department (CFD) to organize a massive search and rescue effort in Richland County’s areas affected by flooding. I was working 0500-2200 days Sunday/ Thursday and finally got home Friday evening. I’ve been sleeping ever since. I now feel like I’ve recovered.

 On Saturday evening, the 2nd when the SC IMT got the assignment to assist CFD, we had never faced anything like this.  We were all wondering what in the world we were getting into and how could we assist them.  Our training is to bring clarity to chaos, by organizing the things that need to be done. So with that in mind, we were given a Delegation of Authority over the Search Teams and the support agencies as to how, where, and in what pattern to assure the entire county was checked and all loss of life was mitigated.

The IMT is organized in specific areas to attain the goal.  This system called Incident Command System or ICS has been tested for years, starting with the U.S. Forest Service, who combat massive wildfires almost daily. SC Forestry uses ICS daily in normal operations, which is why SC Forestry is the State of SC’s Incident Management Team for major events of critical nature.

 We have an Incident Commander, who is the ‘in-charge’ authority, and we all operate under him.  The other areas are Safety Officer, Finance Chief, Plans Chief, Operations Chief, Logistics Chief, and the Public Info/Liaison Officer.  We are the Command Staff responsible for all items under our authority.

 In major events, it’s critical that the proper resources (people, equipment, and specialized teams like swift water rescue) are on scene when it’s needed.  The plans for the tactics and the carrying out of those plans must be fully vetted to assure it’s the correct thing and way to do it.  We plan each day the evening before, so we can brief all the teams before they go out each day. The plan is called the Incident Action Plan – this daily plan outlines the personnel, the divisions with maps, a safety plan and hazards to be aware of, communications plan, and a medical plan.  This is the game-sheet we all use for each division and rescue team.

 My part in this evolution was Logistics Chief. I was responsible for locating (procurement) of all facilities and feeding locations. Remember the restaurants were closed due to water supply issues, so we had to ask the Salvation Army and the Baptist Association to bring in their portable kitchens to feed not only the public but the emergency workers too. They were making 1,000 breakfasts and 800 hot meals twice a day just for the workers in Richland County. A massive effort on anyone’s scale.  I assigned a Food Unit Leader to this task and had to call in a deputy Food Leader to assist with getting the meals out to the teams each day. The blocked/damaged roads made this a tough job.

 Logistics also included finding sleeping quarters for all responders. I was happy that a majority of the local responders were able to house at home each night. Many were housed at the Criminal Justice Academy and 20 of the Forestry folks were at our barracks.  I had one Facility Director to handle this.

 Logistics has to procure gasoline, diesel, and drinking water and distribute to all the fire stations in the county.  Usually we had the drop-off made directly to the stations.  Logistics also ordered the swift water rescue teams from out of state and requested the Firefighter mobilization from FDs in SC. They all responded. Due to the dollars involved Logistics and Finance works close to make sure the costs are captured for FEMA accounting later.

 Logistics also made sure all teams had radio equipment that could communicate back to command at CFD. We were operating on CFD’s Command 1 channel (on the Palmetto 800 Trunked System); however local communications was on a 800 simplex channel.  We quickly realized that this was an issue because the radios will not scan “on system” and a simplex (off-system) at the same time. So each Division Supervisor was given two radios – 1 on Command 1 and a 2nd on 8SCTAC Channel he was assigned. A CFD person was the Communications Unit Leader (COML).

 I will admit; I was flustered the first two days as we got the pieces into place, but by Monday, work fell into a pattern and my stress dropped.  I will never forget the despair the evening the four dams broke in succession within 30 minutes of each other.   For several hours, we worked and worked to get teams into the areas checking for survivors (the area has already been evacuated, but a few would not leave). No additional deaths that evening, but the next day people were driving past barricades to their death. Sadly, we lost two after someone else moved a barricade and those traveling into the area didn’t know had been moved.  The persons that moved the barricade will be charged with murder and if they are found, they will be prosecuted.

That evening, about 10pm, the Chief asked me to come to his office, saying he wanted to pray for the situation and we went before the throne of God that night on the 2nd floor of 1800 Laurel St., and asked God in intervene. He did – the next day, we noticed that everything seemed to click better and I think that God made the change over the entire event.

One last item.  The entire SC IMT team was asked on Friday just as we were eating our lunches, if we got another call to respond on Monday would you be available again.. Everyone said yes, this is our home and we’ll do what we can.  THAT IS DEDICATION. 

As we, the SC IMT Command Staff was given an honor that Columbia Fire has not done before.  With tears in his eyes Chief Helms told us about a ceremony done with each recruit class. When they complete their training and are officially Firefighters with Columbia Fire Department, the entire class signs the back of a patch, that patch is then placed in the shadow box with all the other patches from all the other classes held since the early 1900’s.  The chief asked us to sign a patch and then welcomed us into the family of the Columbia Fire Family.  This especially had deep meaning to me as I was a Firefighter, a former Chief of the South Darlington Fire Dept. and was on the command staff at the State Fire Academy for 5 years.  I am now in another FD as family.  I know that this week, made lifelong friends and the bond of helping the citizens of Richland Co. will never be broken.”