The Emergency Management Department's staff welcomes you to our web site. We sincerely hope you will use the information presented here to become more informed and prepare your home, family or business for a major emergency or disaster.

Emergency Operations Information and Preparedness

In addition to preparedness information this web site is also a source of reliable, accurate and official Dorchester County Emergency Operations information. The "Shelter Information" link on the right leads to a Shelter Status page that lists Hurricane Evacuation shelters and their status. The "Public Info" page will have the official press releases from the county's Emergency Operations Center (EOC) when the EOC is activated. These releases may include evacuation messages, shelter opening/closing announcements and other important information. The "EOC" page will list other important information and announcements such as EOC Status, Damage Reports, Local Openings and Closings, Roads Status, etc.

In the "Preparedness" section you will find easy to understand and practical steps for preparing your home, family, business and staff for the hazards we face in the Lowcountry. The "Evacuate" page will help you to evaluate whether you should stay or leave when a hurricane or tropical system threatens the SC Coast. Maps of official evacuation routes along with important steps to insure your evacuation goes as smoothly as possible are available. The "Storm Info" page will have updated hurricane forecast track maps and links to other Tropical Weather related images and forecasts.

Bookmark us and come back often. You will soon find more resources and information to help you prepare your family, home and business for the natural and technological hazards we face in Dorchester County.

Department Overview

Emergency Management's mission is to protect life, property & the environment by developing, coordinating and supporting programs that prepare for, respond to, and recover from disasters and other emergencies.

The Communications Support Division is responsible for the procurement, maintenance, systems administration and technical support for the county's communications assets. This includes over 285 Cell Phones, 80 pagers and over 500 mobile and portable radios. Systems supported include E-911 and Dispatch Systems. Dorchester County is a long-time partner in the Palmetto 800 MHz Shared Trunked Network. PAL800 is a state-of-the-art 'trunked' communications network that provides state-wide voice and data communications for over 19,000 radios used by state and local governments and utilities.

The 911-Emergency Services Geographic Information System (GIS) Analyst is a recently added function to the ESD. ESD-GIS responsible for maintaining the county's road centerline data and maps. This data is the basis for all county road maps. ESD-GIS has a key role in the implementation of the "911-Dispatch Mapping" system and Wireless E-911 Phase 2 slated for start-up late 2006. Wireless E-911 Phase 2 will provide location data of Wireless E-911 callers.

Dennis Clark, Emergency Management Director

Ron Arroyo, Communications Coordinator

John Place, Communications Technician

Justin Welch, 911- Emerg. Management GIS Analyst

Theresa McKnight, Administrative Secretary

**NOTICE***

This web site, emails or other alerting lists we may offer must not be relied upon as a primary source for severe weather information or warnings. The Internet can have a highly unpredictable delivery time for reasons far beyond our control.

Emergency Managers strongly recommend that you have a NOAA Weather Radio for timely severe weather warnings and other official emergency alerts. If you live in a mobile or manufactured home a NOAA Weather Radio is a MUST HAVE! Many local electronics retailers carry NOAA Weather Radios at a reasonable price ($35-$45). Countless lives have been saved by this device when users receive immediate warnings of life-threatening weather events such as Tornadoes, etc. A NOAA Weather Radio could also be the ONLY means of receiving official emergency public information if broadcast media stations are off the air.

We will make every effort to insure the information presented here is timely. However, staff limitations or the pace of operations may delay updating information.

Links to external web sites do not necessarily constitute an endorsement by the County of Dorchester. While the sites linked to from here are thought to be reputable and accurate. The County of Dorchester has no control over the information found at any external web site.