Hurricane Season Begins — Do You Know Your Zone?

 

 

Conway, South Carolina - June 1 marks the beginning of the 2013 hurricane season, but are most people prepared? Are you prepared?

The Horry County Emergency Management Department wants residents to get their family’s emergency plan in place and put their emergency supply kit together prior to a storm.

Now is the time to get ready, and it’s easy with the help of the Horry County Hurricane Guide. The public can go http://emd.horrycounty.org  and click on the Know Your Zone link to download, print and share various preparation tips on how to protect yourself, your family and your property during this hurricane season.

“Horry County Government is always preparing for a storm and working with other local and state agencies to do so, but everyone has an individual responsibility to get prepared and make sure their family has a plan,” said Randy Webster, Horry County Emergency Management Director.

In anticipation of an evacuation order, which can only be given by the governor, Webster also reminds the public that they should plan to leave town if at all possible, and everyone along the coast is strongly encouraged to make travel arrangements well in advance.

“Because of the low-lying areas in our county, we will never have enough safe shelter space for all of Horry County’s residents and its visitors,” said Randy Webster. “Therefore, we encourage everyone who has the means to leave town to do so and to consider shelters only as a last resort when they have nowhere else to go.”

Also, those who have the ability to leave should do so as early as possible.

“You don’t have to wait until an evacuation order is issued,” Webster added. “If you can, leave as early as possible to make your trip easier and to help relieve the traffic congestion on our roads.”

Horry County Emergency Management has developed the Know Your Zone Guide which contains important information regarding hurricane preparedness. The guide includes:


    Hurricane preparation tips
    Local evacuation routes & tips
    Shelter information
    Know Your Zone map
    Resources for pets
    Local re-entry information

 Know Your Zone is a public education campaign to inform the citizens and visitors of Horry County of the new hurricane evacuation zones and their vulnerability to storm surge. The Know Your Zone campaign was developed as a result of the information contained in the South Carolina Hurricane Evacuation Study (HES) for the Northern Conglomerate that was released by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) in 2012.  The campaign also reflects the National Hurricane Center’s (NHC) decision to separate the association of storm surge inundation from the category of storm. “Again, it’s not so much the category of storm or even if we are in the error cone, but rather the impact the storm can have on our community and the impact it will have on your home,” stated Webster.

For more information on hurricane preparedness, please contact Horry County Emergency Management at 915-5150.