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Traffic plan for hurricanes is essential

OUR VIEW: Testing the evacuation plan can prevent fiasco such as in 1999

The month is September. The year is 1999. The storm is Hurricane Floyd. The exercise is frustration.

South Carolina was spared the wrath of that storm during our month for hurricanes, but there was plenty of wrath to go around.

The images are lasting: People standing around their cars in traffic that simply was not moving; angry comments to reporters and anyone who'd listen; a woman changing a youngster's diaper behind the door of a car stopped in the lanes of traffic on I-26; cars stalled along the roadside, out of gas from the long delay; the governor flying over in a helicopter before getting to Charleston to tell the media all was going smoothly with the evacuation.

The mandatory evacuation ordered by then-Gov. Jim Hodges did not go smoothly -- and it didn't take the governor long after that to find out. Late in the day of the evacuation, back in Columbia, Hodges ordered the traffic flow out of Charleston to all lanes of the interstate, closing off eastbound traffic.

For days afterward, despite his actions to ensure no slowdown in the return of coastal residents, Hodges took hit after hit from media, politicians and citizens. All the while, he and his lieutenants attempted to explain. Later he issued a formal apology.

It was a lesson learned -- or relearned. Why reversal of the lanes out of Charleston for such a major evacuation was not an integral part of the evacuation plan then is unclear.

It has been sense.

No emergency plan, however, is any better than its implementation. That's why, on Tuesday, two months ahead of peak hurricane season here, state emergency personnel descended upon Interstate 26 and other key evacuation routes to put the plan to the test.

The S.C. Department of Public Safety, in conjunction with other state agencies, conducted a lane-reversal exercise to prepare emergency personnel for traffic scenarios that might occur during an actual hurricane. The exercise simulated the deployment of law enforcement personnel and traffic-control devices, even though lanes were not reversed for the exercise. Simulation can only go so far.

Law enforcement officers were sent to cover major interchanges. The S.C. Department of Transportation supplied barricades, cones and other traffic-control devices needed to reconfigure the interstate into a one-way operation.

This hurricane exercise was meant to test readiness during the pre-execution and mobilization phase; to test information flow from the emergency operations centers to the field; to assess the procedures for lane reversals and to evaluate how well participating agencies work together, according to state DPS.

"This allows us to assess strengths and weaknesses in everything from communication among participating agencies to procedures for dispatching personnel and reversing lanes," Highway Patrol Col. Russell Roark said. "It is absolutely critical that we test our hurricane plan before we need to use it in a live situation."

Indeed. When ordered to evacuate, South Carolinians must leave the coast without wondering whether they'll be able to get out on the roads and highways.