The Western Piedmont Regional Emergency Management Task Force

By Chip Sturgis
Public Information Officer, Anderson County (S.C.)
Emergency Services-Public Safety Division

Read Part 1: Caring without borders

This is the second and final part of Homeland1's article about the Western Piedmont Regional Emergency Management Task Force, an award-winning interagency coalition.

Four mostly rural South Carolina counties, Abbeville, Anderson, Oconee and Pickens, learned that there’s power in cooperation and a greater sense of achievement when a coalition of counties can maximize each other’s strengths.

In 2006, for improving preparedness and response to all-hazards disasters, including major public assemblies, the task force received a Certificate of Merit in the annual Interagency Disaster Preparedness Awards, awarded by Homeland Protection Professional magazine and the International Association of Emergency Managers.

Communications and dispatch
Even with all of the ambitious goals on the table, some obstacles had to be overcome before the task force could pursue its objectives and member counties could realize their goals.

For example, the task force couldn’t operate effectively due to the lack of a reliable, interoperable communications system. Each county had its own radios to communicate within their  respective borders, but all emergency response agencies within the four-county region needed an 800MHz radio system to operate effectively across county lines and in rural areas.

Therefore, the task force used non-matching, fully funded federal homeland security grant money to purchase an 800MHz radio system that now allows all emergency response agencies operating within each of the four counties to communicate.

Hardhat divers from Oconee County and support personnel from Anderson County participate in a recovery operation on Lake Jocassee on Thanksgiving Day 2007. (Photo by Scott Krein, Oconee County Emergency Management)

The new radios place first responders in all four counties on the same platform with an operating frequency that provides clear command and control. First responders can instantly connect and communicate with each other, request additional resources, coordinate rescue missions, and provide other forms of response to various threats and emergencies.

After a long campaign, the Anderson County Council voted in November 2007 to authorize the expenditure of $8.5 million for the construction of a countywide 800MHz radio network including three additional towers. Currently, there is only one tower in Anderson County, which is part of the South Carolina 800MHz network.

The new network will offer 95 percent coverage to 95 percent of the county and the mobile and handheld radio equipment will allow local agencies to interface with other agencies statewide and throughout the Southeast as need be. The tower coverage will further enhance neighboring systems in Abbeville, Oconee, Pickens and Greenville counties as well as neighboring Hart County, Ga.

Meanwhile, the task force partners with several Local Emergency Preparedness Committees, Community Emergency Response Teams, the South Carolina Dept. of Natural Resources, South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, Dept. of Health and  Environmental Control (DHEC), South Carolina Emergency Management Division, National Guard Civil Support Team, Palmetto Equine Awareness & Rescue League and South Carolina Highway Patrol.

Recent joint operations
Anderson, Oconee and Pickens counties share lake frontage on Hartwell Lake, which has become the second most traveled lake in America. These three counties, in addition to the South Carolina and Georgia departments of natural resources, started regular boat patrols, staffed with EMTs and divers, of some of the more popular sections of the lake during the summer of 2007. These efforts decreased medical response times in numerous incidents.

Prepared to respond to emergencies on the region’s waterways are: Anderson County’s rescue boat and dive team; Oconee County’s swiftwater rescue team, deep water dive team and rescue boat, including sonar, recovery camera and evidence collection equipment; Abbeville County’s fire boat and dive team; Pickens County’s dive team, recovery pontoon and rescue boat; rescue boats from the South Carolina Dept. of Natural Resources; and private agencies, such as TowBoat USA.

Anderson County’s hazmat and COBRA (Chemical, Ordnance, Biological, and Radiological Team) teams have deployed more than 70 times in the past two years, mostly along I-85, and have supported Abbeville and Greenville counties in various hazmat identification and disposal incidents. The COBRA Team is composed of highly trained specialists and deals with incidents that are too large or complex for smaller agencies.

Anderson and Abbeville counties also collaborated during the murder trials of Rita and Steven Bixby in Abbeville. The Bixby family, which had relocated from New Hampshire to Abbeville, engaged in a shootout in which two lawmen, Abbeville County Deputy Sheriff Sgt. Daniel "Danny Boy" Wilson, 37, and State Constable Donald "Donnie" Ouzts, 61, were murdered.

Anderson and Abbeville had worked together on the preceding trials, so that Abbeville personnel became proficient at deploying and operating the Anderson County Unified Mobile Command Center. The command post aided command, control and communications for various law enforcement agencies at the scene.

The task force has begun new projects and joint investigations with the DHEC to eliminate large-scale trash dumping and violations of the state’s Pollution Control Act and Solid Waste Management Act. A joint investigation between DHEC and Anderson County Environmental Enforcement brought charges against a flagrant violator that has dumped more than 1,000 used tires on rural dirt roads.

Anderson County’s mobile command post and Abbeville County vehicles arrayed during the trial of Rita Bixby in Abbeville, S.C., in October 2007. (Photo by Steve McDade, Abbeville County Emergency Management)

The DHEC and the Anderson County Emergency Services/Public Safety Division’s Environmental Enforcement Department have also united with the Anderson County Fire Commission, American Heart Association, Cancer Association of Anderson, South Carolina Forestry Commission, Anderson Economic Development Division, Fairway Outdoor Media and Anderson County Council chairman Michael Thompson to form the Illegal Outdoor Burning Prevention Task Force. Councilman Thompson called the first meeting of this group after receiving complaints of breathing difficulties from a number of his constituents.

This task force leverages the law enforcement powers of the county fire investigators, DHEC personnel and Forestry Commission agents to issue citations for illegal burning in unincorporated areas. The second aim of the illegal burning task force is to educate residents and guests through the distribution of eduational materials throughout Anderson County and Fairway Outdoor Media’s donation of three billboards for public service announcements over a 12-month period. Anderson County wants to take all steps possible to ensure it has the best air quality and economic development climate available.

All four task force counties are also members of an innovative emergency notification effort. An Anderson resident approached law enforcement and later the Anderson County Emergency Services/Public Safety Division to develop a plan to use electronic advertisements to display missing-persons and emergency alert messages. Two Anderson County Emergency Services/Public Safety employees, Anita Allison Donley and Chip Sturgis, developed a concept called the Billboard Emergency Alert System, or BEAS for short.

The program costs neither the county nor the participating local businesses any money. Staff members contacted business owners regarding their voluntary participation in the program and built a contact database using the reverse-notification feature of Anderson County Central Dispatch’s CAD system. The program caught like wildfire, and the enrollment team enlisted more than 100 local businesses in less than 60 days.

The pilot BEAS program was tested in October 2007, with more than 50 businesses participating. Anderson County CERT volunteers timed and recorded the accuracy of the posted message for each participant. Since then, local governments throughout the country and as far away as the U.S. Virgin Islands have voiced interest in starting similar programs.

The task force has provided training opportunities and trainers to help develop CERT programs in the four counties. The individual CERTs have made great strides and have worked with the state health department to learn to deploy and erect a mobile surge hospital tent, which can aid hospitals during a significant crisis. CERT programs from throughout South Carolina will gather in Anderson during August 29-September 1, 2008, to participate in a CERT Olympics as part of the Second Annual Great Southeast BalloonFest.

The Western Piedmont Regional Emergency Management Task Force is an indicator that some truly special things are happening in this region of South Carolina. The area has been known for years as a great place to live, work and play. The area is also known as a region of neighbors who are always ready to lend a neighbor a hand, especially in difficulty. The task force is just another example of South Carolinians performing traditional roles in non-traditional ways.

 

GOALS Additionally, each county developed its own specific strategic goals for the task force: Abbeville County Help improve the statewide 800MHz system to ensure reliable coverage for handheld radios throughout the four-county region. Provide alternative, redundant, secure data links for information sharing between county emergency operations centers, mobile surveillance platforms, command and control vehicles, state dispatch centers, and the South Carolina State Emergency Operations Center. Anderson County Improve regional and local capabilities to detect terrorist activity, provide early warning, analyze intelligence, share information and conduct joint operations. Equip the fusion and harbor coordination centers with state-of-the-art technology for database mining, systems integration, comparative searches, analysis and information dissemination. Improve regional and local capabilities to respond to terrorist attacks employing chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or explosive devices; infectious disease outbreaks; public health threats; and other emergencies. Enhance the state’s capabilities to provide support and assistance to the region in case of a WMD event. Improve communications interoperability, security and redundancy among health, government, EMS, fire service, COBRA, law enforcement and other public safety organizations. Improve regional and local capabilities to respond to agroterrorism, foreign animal disease, plant disease or other disasters that threaten agriculture or the food industry. Oconee County Detect security threats and prevent terrorist attacks from occurring in the region. Enhance protection of critical infrastructure. Identify security enhancement technology to protect the state’s most vulnerable and valuable targets (the Oconee Nuclear Station and the Bad Creek, Jocassee and Keowee hydroelectric plants). Reduce the region’s vulnerability to terrorism and respond rapidly to suspected enemy activity. Improve regional and local capabilities to respond to terrorist attacks employing chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or explosive devices; infectious disease outbreaks; public health threats; or other emergencies. Develop, exercise and evaluate a comprehensive public health emergency preparedness plan. Develop regional mass-casualty plans and systems in cooperation with hospital, EMS and other healthcare providers. Develop a resource management program in the EOC to track available and committed responder personnel, special capability teams, hospital staff, equipment, supplies, etc., during WMD response operations. Continue to fill previously identified and new equipment requirements for regional and local response agencies. Pickens County Improve regional and local capabilities to respond to and recover from terrorist attacks employing chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or explosive devices; infectious disease outbreaks; public health threats; and other emergencies.