Jared Guadagni - Staff Writer

Roger Riley, at right, sits in the emergency operations center as scenarios during the drill are shown on the screen.

As the high winds howled across the county, the emergency response crews nestled deep in the Barnwell County Emergency Operation Center in the courthouse basement lept into action.

A tornado had touched down in the Heathwood neigborhood and electrical fires were breaking out along with reports of people missing.

Barnwell Rural, Hilda and Friendship fire departments are called to respond to fires.

Barnwell County Sheriff's deputies are asked to keep non-emergency people out of Heathwood while two medics from two shelters are placed on standby.

Neon communications flash across the wide projection screen from the WebEOC (Emergency Operation Center) computer program.

The program keeps the county in contact with state emergency response officials in Columbia.

This was only a test.

All of this was in preparation for a real disaster.

"What we are doing here today is having a real-time drill which would simulate the events of a hurricane hitting the coast and what would happen here," said Gretchen Birt.

Birt is playing the part of a public information officer for the county June 11, the day of the drill.

"The idea is to keep the county residents safe and keep everything up and running," said Birt.

She advised that families and individuals should keep water; a first aid kit; nonperishable food; flashlights; and batteries close at hand.

In the scenario, a mandatory evacuation has been activated for the coastal areas and people from Beaufort and Hilton Head Island because of a category 4 hurricane.

Barnwell County emergency shelters are full as it suffers from the backlash of the storm.

"Our local people need to understand that if they need to get in a shelter - they need to get in early," said Roger Riley, the Barnwell County Emergency Management director.

He said residents should get to a shelter as soon as the order for a coast evacuation is given.

Barnwell High Achool was one staging area for the drill.

The school will house more than 800 Beaufort County and Hilton Head Island officials as well as emergency personnel if needed.

To help keep residents safe and stay on top of the situation, the EOC or Emergency Operations Center, was activated. The EOC is in the courthouse basement and was packed with representatives of various local county and state agencies who closely monitored the situation and notified personnel in their departments to respond to any other threats arising from the hurricane scenario.

However, no emergency or disaster situation follows a script, but Barnwell County is following an emergency response plan as best as it can, said Riley.

Firm leadership and close communication among agencies is vital, he said.

"Everything changes as it occurs - you make the best decision you can," said Riley.

A day after the drill, Riley shared his thoughts on it and said he was pleased with the performance of its participants.

"The people working in the drill knew who to call to get answers. If they didn't know who to call, they knew who to communicate with who would know someone who would find the answer," said Riley.

Riley said most of the problems were technical communication issues.

He said there are backup plans if computer programs malfunction and the center has an emergency generator if the power lines go down.
Barnwell County keeps in touch with Columbia and other agencies with land phone lines, WebEOC, satellite phone, local government radio and 800 MHz radio.

This week, the counties who participated in the drill will be getting together for an after-action report to identify strengths and weaknesses, said Riley.