[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
Hello and welcome to First Friday with Georgetown County. I'm Jackie Broach, public information officer for Georgetown county. And our first guest today is one of my favorite people in the world, Lauren Wallace. If you don't know Lauren, you should because he is Georgetown County's emergency manager. So if something bad happens, you want to have Lauren's phone number.
Lauren is here to talk with us today about new program that he has reached recently launched in emergency management.
Lauren, it sounds like you're training the next generation emergency managers.
[00:00:42] Speaker B: Well, that's what we're trying to do because at the end of the day, we are all emergency managers. We are all responsible for our preparedness because we live at a place in a place where, you know, things can happen. Everything from hurricanes to earthquakes to ice storms to cyber attacks. So. So we all have to be prepared.
[00:01:00] Speaker A: We even have to be ready for tsunamis. Right?
[00:01:02] Speaker B: We absolutely have to be ready for tsunamis. And
[00:01:04] Speaker A: we are tsunami ready. Correct.
[00:01:05] Speaker B: We are a tsunami ready county.
Good news is, and one of the things I like to tell everybody is there's only a few hazards that we don't have to worry about. You want to take a guess what one might be?
[00:01:16] Speaker A: Volcanoes.
[00:01:17] Speaker B: You studied. You, you studied for the test. Volcanoes are one of the hazards that we do not have to worry about. Unless the tik tock is right, then, you know, if that's the case. But I don't think it is. Volcanoes are one of the things. And avalanches. You want to take a guess why?
[00:01:33] Speaker A: Because it's very flat here.
[00:01:35] Speaker B: We do not have the terrain that is conducive to avalanches. Yeah.
[00:01:39] Speaker A: Okay. Well, two things off your plate at least. Thank goodness.
[00:01:43] Speaker B: That's right.
[00:01:44] Speaker A: So tell us about.
You're right, you're right. So tell us about the junior emergency management program.
[00:01:50] Speaker B: So the junior emergency management program is a program in partnership with the Black Root River United Way. And we did one of them in partnership with our friends in the great independent republic of Horry county where we go out into the fifth graders and we teach them a little bit about emergency management. What does it mean to be an emergency manager. But most importantly, how do we prepare for those disasters or the risks that we face here at home.
[00:02:18] Speaker A: I bet a lot of them did not know at 10 years old that we have emergency managers.
[00:02:22] Speaker B: They did not. And that's one of the coolest things is, hey, what does an emergency manager do? And you know, we got some, a variety of answers. Some of them got very close, but you were correct. They did not know what an emergency manager is or does. And one of the things we were able to tell them in the program, well, an emergency manager basically asks five questions and we say, what are our risks?
Kind of, what's the worst that can happen?
And then we progress on from there. Like, okay, so knowing our risks, then what do we do to prepare for that risk? Who do we think about when we're preparing? How do we get that message out?
And it's fun just kind of walking through that process because kids actually get it. Yeah, kids get it.
[00:03:07] Speaker A: We, we, I have a four year old. We do not give them enough credit. They are very smart. Very, very early these days.
[00:03:13] Speaker B: That's right.
[00:03:15] Speaker A: So tell me a little bit, what, what happens after you explain the job to them?
[00:03:20] Speaker B: So we start off by explaining the, hey, this is what an emergency manager does, which are basically we kind of ask these questions about the things that can impact us and then from there we kind of progress. Okay, so we know we've got to prepare for this. And so we, we asked them to tell us what you would put in a preparedness kit, like if you were staying at home, you know what the risks are.
Something happens, one of those consequences of the risk, like power outage. Right? So you know, we've got a hurricane, it comes, it has wind, it has water, that could lead to trees down, trees down, could lead to power outages. So you're at home, you know, what kind of stuff would you need? Or you live in an evacuation zone for a hurricane, which is also another one of those things of hey, knowing. And so knowing the risk and we evacuate because of water, that storm surge risk.
So if you've got a leaf, what would you need to take with you? And so we went through this exercise of okay, let's prepare a kit and so what would you do? And then from there what you would. We did a few different readiness labs. And so one of the first ones is, is a virtual reality ready readiness lab of the flooding risk and the dangers of flooding. And then we moved on into more in depth. Okay, let's do a hurricane lab since that's kind of one of our predominant hazards here along the coast.
So we went in depth of what a hurricane is, how do we track it, you know, what kind of messaging should we look for? Because in today's time and again it was, you were, you said it earlier, you know, you got a four year old, they know a lot of stuff. And so now even kids know there's some bad information out there. So where do we get good Information, like from our trusty public information officer who's going to give us the good. Right information. And so kind of went through, what do we look for in the information during times of disaster or if something's going on? And so, so we're getting it from good, credible sources. And then after that, we went a little bit more in detail with that preparedness kit. And then the best part of all is, like any good emergency manager, we exercised everything. We just practiced. So we did a tabletop exercise. And so with that, we presented a scenario. Obviously it was a hurricane scenario because we're still in hurricane season at least through the end of this month, but we're counting down the days.
So we did a hurricane scenario and we said, okay, so, so here's a list of questions based on the scenario presented. The question that is at hand, you know, what would you do?
Would you take action? Go. Would you wait for more information from, like, our public information officer or from the official sources?
So would you wait, Would you warn others this situation warrant you warning family and friends of this impending issue, whatever it might be, or would you stop? Because there's no safe action at the moment to take, so you have to stop, hunker down. And so kept it real simple. But we, we did this great tabletop exercise, and it was just a blast.
[00:06:33] Speaker A: Okay. I heard there was also some, some virtual reality.
[00:06:37] Speaker B: There was absolutely some virtual reality. Kids loved it.
[00:06:39] Speaker A: I bet they did.
[00:06:40] Speaker B: They did. And the teachers, too. So we. With the virtual reality.
So there's a, a lot of great educational resources out there. And so from a flood district out west in California, a little video. So we had the teacher put on the VR headset set down, and it showed the reason why we have phrases like turn around, don't drown, which is a good emergency management saying, because, you know, flooding is one of, again, another
[00:07:12] Speaker A: biggest hazard
[00:07:12] Speaker B: is 100%, one of those biggest hazards or risks that we have around here. And so teacher, you know, wore the, wore the little VR headset. The kids got to see it on the tv. And as they were, you know, the video progressed, we would ask them to look out for certain things, like, you know, water itself doesn't seem dangerous, but you never know what's lurking in that water. There could be debris, you know, all this other stuff. The road might not be there. And so it was just a good reminder of, hey, we don't want to drive through flooded water. We also don't want to go into flooded water because you don't know what's there.
[00:07:47] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Okay, so what is the future for this program?
How is it offered?
[00:07:53] Speaker B: So this was the first year that we, we've done this program again in partnership with United Way. We did fifth grade. This year we're looking to at two schools here in Georgetown or three schools in Georgetown County.
We are looking to next year maybe expand that out a little bit more. This was a good kind of test run and we did this during National Preparedness Month in September. So this is, you know, a great way to again just preach that preparedness message.
So next year we're looking to just expand it out a little bit more.
[00:08:24] Speaker A: Okay, wonderful. Well, I, I'm certain that, that kids will continue to enjoy and, and learn a great deal from this program for many years to come. Lauren, thank you so much for talking with us about this. Is there anything else you want to add on while you're here?
[00:08:38] Speaker B: Well, so we are coming to the end of hurricane season, but as we come to the end of hurricane season, well, as we said a minute ago, there's still other stuff that we, we have to worry about. So one of the things that is not my whatsoever is winter weather. And so we've
[00:08:55] Speaker A: had snow a couple of years in a row.
[00:08:57] Speaker B: We sure have. We've had some snow and I'm
[00:08:59] Speaker A: hoping for third.
[00:09:00] Speaker B: Yeah, well, you're the only one, but I could respect where you're coming from.
[00:09:05] Speaker A: My 4 year old is also hoping.
[00:09:07] Speaker B: I can imagine snow would be great. Unfortunately around here kind of you ask the questions. Snow is just not typically what we see. We get
[00:09:16] Speaker A: ice.
[00:09:16] Speaker B: We get ice. And so just like with hurricanes or any other, you know, there's, there are these cascading consequences to whatever we may face. So unfortunately, because, you know. Well, fortunately and unfortunately. Right. So we've had a climatological pattern that's been not really conducive to tropical systems development.
So that's the reason why we've had this kind of slower hurricane season.
What that means for us though is we're probably going to see a little bit cooler, wetter winter.
So precipitation is in cold weather, especially for us, tends to mean more chances for, you know, that winter weather development, which means, you know, a quarter of inch ice can take down tree limbs, power lines, you know, so we just want to be mindful as we're moving into this, this winter season, stay prepared. Just like in hurricane season, you know, we stay prepared at least three days of stuff. So if we had a hunker down at home, you know that, you know that you have a heating Source that is safe and appropriate.
[00:10:28] Speaker A: Talk with me a little bit about safe and appropriate heating sources.
[00:10:32] Speaker B: That's right. So first thing is, if the power goes out, what are your alternative means to keeping yourself and your family warm?
Obviously the first thing is generator safety. So if you do have a generator that you are using, that you're using at point safely, that you know you're.
[00:10:52] Speaker A: Carbon monoxide is always an issue. Make sure you've got your carbon monoxide detectors.
[00:10:56] Speaker B: That's right. Never use a generator indoors or in an enclosed space, you know, away from the house. You know, all of that knowing how to appropriately use the generator and that you are not, you're, you've got a licensed electrician who's came out if you're trying to actually hook into your house itself, you know, because generators can back feed and can cause issues for those who are trying to restore power. So we want to make sure everybody stays safe so that you do that. The other thing is, is when it comes to heating sources, you know that if you're using indoor heaters that you don't have anything around it to, you know, to catch fire and create another, you know, issue on top of the issue you're already facing.
Light sources, you know, we always talk about flashlights are better than the candles. Candles work in a pinch. But guess what? Candles, you know, if we're applying as good emergency manager should, if we're applying kind of that methodology. Well, if you light that candle, there's a risk that it could get knocked over and, and again call another disaster on top of the disaster so that you're mindful of those kind of things. So make sure you got batteries for your flashlight, you know, that kind of stuff.
[00:12:16] Speaker A: And refueling some of those non electric heaters can also be an issue. People want to, to do it inside and not go outside where it is recommended that, that you do that, things like that.
[00:12:27] Speaker B: That's exactly right. And our, our friends at the fire department has great literature on this and I'm sure that, you know, we will be posting all kind of safety messages around that, but. That's exactly right. There's a reason why, you know, the instructions say to go outside and to fuel that up because again, you don't want to introduce any additional hazards into what you're already facing.
[00:12:50] Speaker A: Yeah. So if you are not already following Lauren's emergency management page, Georgetown county emergency management on Facebook and social media, make sure you go do that.
The county will of course share all that messaging when something's going on, but just go ahead and take that precaution and make sure that you're following and you get it firsthand.
[00:13:10] Speaker B: That's right. Like follow and share. I think that's what
[00:13:13] Speaker A: it. Like follow and
[00:13:13] Speaker B: share. Influencer say, right? Yeah.
[00:13:15] Speaker A: I don't know. Are you an influencer?
[00:13:16] Speaker B: I am not.
[00:13:17] Speaker A: You could be.
[00:13:18] Speaker B: I don't know about that.
[00:13:20] Speaker A: All right, Lauren, thank you so much.
[00:13:23] Speaker B: Thank you, Jackie. Thank you for having me.
[00:13:25] Speaker A: Of course. Anytime.
Our next guest is Captain Jonathan Griffith with the Georgetown County Sheriff's Office. And he is here to talk about a recent FBI training we did. And I'm going to let him explain it because he can definitely do it better than I did. So, Captain, tell us a little bit about this training that that you recently did with some of our stakeholders.
[00:13:47] Speaker C: So I put together a class for training and I implemented, you know, Georgetown County Fire Midway, all the players that will be there if a critical incident occurred.
This particular training involved the FBI's CAR team, which they deal with either missing or abducted children.
The R stands for rapid deployment. So what do you do? If we had an abducted child or missing child, the first thing we do is call FBI.
They can deploy people from all over the East Coast.
And being recent events with the Sailor Hayes case and other events, I felt like we needed a refresher just to go over some things and make sure everybody's on the same page.
[00:14:38] Speaker A: Yeah. And sailor, of course, was a young girl with autism who went missing and was unfortunately later found deceased in the water.
[00:14:46] Speaker C: That's correct.
[00:14:47] Speaker A: For anybody who was not aware.
So this, I mean, it obviously is something that we hope that we'll never, ever have to utilize, but you clearly need to. To have something ready for, because time,
[00:14:59] Speaker C: it's a Tom is very sensitive in these situations.
And that's why I want to make sure we're.
Everyone's up to date on what's available, all the assets.
Because when it comes down to it, you have to know where things are available at.
[00:15:15] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah.
Okay. So it sounds like this was a classroom type training this time, but what's next?
[00:15:24] Speaker C: So next time, this class that I just had involved all command staff, which is Lieutenant above, and then your, your EMS and fire personnel, emergency management, just the major players that will be in command.
The next class that I'm trying to get is a three day class which involves a tabletop exercise at the end, and that will involve other personnel that will be there so they can understand the operation, you know, how information is passed along, things that are very critical in these times.
[00:16:00] Speaker A: So as I said, Before. We certainly hope this is not something we ever have to put into practice, but we definitely want our people as ready and prepared as possible if, if we ever do. Well, Captain, is there anything else that you can think of to add or that you want to say about this program?
[00:16:17] Speaker C: The only thing I can say is we're progressing.
I'm trying to strengthen the bond between emergency management, fire and the sheriff's office. That way, when we do have to approach these situations, we're prepared for it.
[00:16:29] Speaker A: Yeah, you absolutely need to have those relationships in place.
And I am so glad to see our both teams at Emergency Management working well together. Emergency services, sorry. Working well together and doing the best they can for our community. All right, Captain, thank you so much for joining.
[00:16:45] Speaker C: Thank you so much. Thank you.
[00:16:47] Speaker A: Our next guest is Aaron Bostick. He is the Assistant Fire Chief with Georgetown County Fire ems. And y' all are busy over there. You've got several things that we can talk about today, but let's start with this new program that you are introducing to the community, Community Connect. Tell us a little bit about that and how it's going to serve our community.
[00:17:03] Speaker D: So we are definitely excited to roll this one out because this one is all about the community.
So it's called Community Connect. It's part of our report management system.
So it kind of came with that package. And what this does, it allows basically allows firefighters and EMTs to be able to access information that's relative to, to your home quickly. So we kind of have that information before the emergency starts, and it kind of puts us a little ahead of the game.
[00:17:33] Speaker A: So, like, I can register and let you know that I have a small child, I have three cats that need to be rescued. Absolutely.
[00:17:41] Speaker D: It's, it's web based, so you sign up online. It's really, really simple to sign up. You do have to have an email to sign up, but once you get signed up, and this is not just for residents, it's also for business owners as well. So anything that you think would benefit us, like if you're a business, if you have a gate code or a door code or where your alarm panel is, anything that could aid us in decision making and, you know, speeding up that, that process in an emergency, or if you're a resident, you know, pets people with any kind of disabilities or mobility issues in the home, kind of where they, they usually hang out. There's, there's a lot of different options and a lot of different information that you can plug in that will allow us to kind of make decisions before we even arrive.
[00:18:31] Speaker A: So it basically is just any information that might help you do your jobs faster. Because of course with an emergency like that, you know, every second can count.
[00:18:39] Speaker D: Absolutely. So utility locations is another good one to put on there.
You know, kind of where they are in the home. Water shut offs, electrical shut offs.
Like I said, any, anything, any kind of information that would, that would aid us in that decision making process and speed that that process up.
[00:18:57] Speaker A: Okay. And is this live now or is it about to go live?
[00:19:00] Speaker D: So we are, we are basically this, we're kind of rolling it out as we speak.
It is ready to go.
One of the things that we're, we're going to do our smoke alarms request through this as well.
But we currently have something in place on our, just our regular website which is www.georgetowncountyfirendms.com all spelled out.
When you go to that website, you can request smoke alarms through there. We're going to keep that up and running and that's how we've been doing it electronically for a few years now. But we want that, we still want people to have access to that in case they don't know about Community Connect or unsure about Community Connect. But Community Connect will also be a spot where they can request smoke alarms.
[00:19:48] Speaker A: Okay, great.
And how you said it, I can just go to your website and sign up. It sounds like it's pretty simple. I just need to enter my email address, get signed up and then just tell you whatever you need to know.
[00:20:00] Speaker D: Correct. On our social media we're going to try to put out multiple different times where they can access the website. Now our, our website that I just described, www.georgetowncountyfirenms.com that's different from our Community Connect website.
[00:20:15] Speaker A: O
[00:20:15] Speaker D: so two different places. But we'll make sure that, you know, we spell that language out for folks and they understand that different things. But yes, the goal is to hopefully get folks to sign up either way.
[00:20:31] Speaker A: Okay.
We will put a link on our website and in the episode description here for anybody who is listening who wants to go and get signed up. Perfect. And Aaron, we also, you have a pretty big training exercise coming up that I'm kind of excited about.
[00:20:50] Speaker D: Yeah. So on November 13th, which actually happens to be Friday the 13th. What
[00:20:55] Speaker A: were you thinking?
[00:20:56] Speaker D: What could go wrong?
Training at the, at the 3V chemical facility. But we are excited about that training with our partners over at 3V with their fire brigade and we're focusing on large area search this round. So basically like a warehouse type facility Big, large square footage area when it's smoked down, how do you search it? You know, training our guys, because that's something that we don't necessarily get to do all the time.
[00:21:24] Speaker A: Yeah,
[00:21:25] Speaker D: it's kind of hard to find the facilities and being able to, you know, stop work when you do find them and be able to use them for training and such. So we partnered up with 3V. They're kind of giving us an area where we can, we can do this training. And we've got about, between us, Georgetown County Emergency Management will be involved, Georgetown City Fire will be involved.
And obviously Georgetown County Fire and Ms. And 3V Fire Brigade. And between all those, we got about 35 people that we're going to be training on Friday 13th.
[00:21:57] Speaker A: Well, that should be really exciting. So if you see some, some commotion going on that day, don't panic. It probably is just training. Unless, you know,
[00:22:05] Speaker D: yeah, there, Friday
[00:22:05] Speaker A: the 13th strikes and something real happens.
[00:22:08] Speaker D: There will be a few, few fire trucks and, you know, our presence in the area for sure that day, but it'll be all focused on site at 3V.
So we're excited, and this is the second round of training we've done with them that's been on this scale. So we're, we're excited to keep that going.
[00:22:24] Speaker A: Well, we just talked with Captain Griffith from the sheriff's office about training and we talked before that with Lauren about his junior emergency management program. So this has ended up being the emergency services episode for, for this month.
[00:22:39] Speaker D: We've, we've got a lot of people in the county doing some great things and there's been some great training initiatives out there in the last several months. So.
And we've kind of all been. Been part of it in some way, shape or form, so it's been good.
[00:22:52] Speaker A: Well, that's great. And I hope that people are comforted and happy to hear, you know, how much you guys put into training and making sure that you are ready, because every second absolutely can count. And it is comforting to me to know how much you guys care and how, how much you put into being ready.
[00:23:07] Speaker D: I know in our department, we spend the vast majority of our time preparing and training for the emergency that hasn't come yet.
And across the board, emergency services across the board and the sheriff's office to do the same.
[00:23:22] Speaker A: And you guys are also very dedicated to serving your community in every way, which leads us up to something else. You guys have coming up this month for like 20 years, I feel, if not longer.
[00:23:34] Speaker D: Y'
[00:23:34] Speaker A: all have done an annual toy Drive for It's the Salvation army, right?
[00:23:38] Speaker D: Yes. We're very excited to kick that off again this year collecting toys for the Salvation army and their Angel Tree program.
We'll be doing that on November 14th and 15th this year. I can't believe Christmas time is upon us here. Halloween has, has put us, you know, behind us and we're, we're already in, in the coming months, so, or the holiday months.
We're very excited to get that going. We're going to be out there, like I said, the 14th and 15th from Walmart,
[00:24:08] Speaker A: Walmart in Georgetown
[00:24:09] Speaker D: at Walmart, collecting toys. So new unwrapped toys.
We'll have our folks out there trying to fill up the ambulance. So please come out and support us. It's been, this event has, has been one of the most supported things I think we've done as a department from the community ever. We get a huge response from the community on this and we're very appreciative of it. Great.
[00:24:31] Speaker A: That's wonderful. I hope you guys get another great response this year. Thank you for being out there and doing that. And is there anything else you can think of that you want to tell us about?
[00:24:41] Speaker D: I think that's it.
[00:24:42] Speaker A: All right, Assistant Chief, thank you so much for joining us this month.
[00:24:47] Speaker D: I definitely appreciate it. Thanks for having me on.
[00:24:49] Speaker A: Anytime.
That's all for First Friday with Georgetown County. Thanks so much for joining us.
As always, I'd like to bring you a list of important events to note coming up this month.
As usual, there are several public meetings scheduled this month. The Board of Elections and Voter Registration will hold a canvas meeting to certify the results of the Tuesday, November 3rd election today at 10:00am this meeting will be immediately followed by their regularly scheduled meeting at approximately 10:30am As a reminder, County Council only meets once in the months of November and December. The November meeting will be on Tuesday, November 10th at 5:30pm in County Council Chambers.
As a reminder, if you can't make it to the meeting, be sure to watch our live
[email protected] gtcountysc instead of a regular meeting, the Planning Commission will hold a workshop on Wednesday, November 18th at 5:30pm Also and county Council Chambers.
This workshop will not be live streamed.
The Tourism Management Commission will meet on Thursday, November 19th at 1:00pm lastly, the Library Board will meet on Thursday, November 19th at 5:30pm at the Georgetown Branch Library.
The Economic Development alliance will hold its fall meeting on Friday, November 13th from 8am to noon at Pawley's Plantation Golf and Country Club.
The theme of this gathering, From Vision to Investment highlights a year of transformation for Georgetown County.
Working alongside Load Working alongside local, regional and state partners, the county is building the foundation that turns vision into infrastructure and potential into progress for residents and businesses.
The meeting brings partners and community members together to look at where local economic development is headed. Next Next as always, your local library has several exciting programs to choose from this month. Check out the library's calendar on our website for a full list of events.
Veterans and military service personnel can get a free car wash on Veterans Day this year at Scrubby's Car Wash locations in Georgetown and Murrells Inlet. The event, sponsored by Grace for Vets, will be held from 7am to 8pm rain or show sunshine.
Also on Veterans Day, a Veterans Day service will be held at the Georgetown County Veterans Memorial at 11:00am followed by a parade down historic Front street at 2:00pm lastly, Georgetown county offices and facilities will be closed on Wednesday 11th in observance of the Veterans Day holiday for Thanksgiving. County offices and most facilities will be closed on November 25th and 26th.
Recycling centers will be closing at 5pm on Wednesday, November 25th and will remain closed all day on November 26th.
For more events, please visit our website at gtcountiesc.gov thanks for watching.
