A hot button issue in the last gubernatorial race, the fiasco over the Hurricane Floyd evacuation. Today local and state agencies are making sure what happened five years ago never happens again. Storm Team 2 looks into how a mock exercise is helping authorities prepare for the real thing.

Hurricane Floyd, 1999 remember it? It's was the largest peacetime evacuation in US history! You're looking at traffic as it tries to move through and out of the low country during this evacuation. (see video clip above) The South Carolina Department of Public Safety, law enforcement and the Department of Transportation don't want to see this scene again. That's why they're making a practice run.

"While the troopers and law enforcement are on their post they will be given several mock scenarios to deal with. And what we intend to do is not only grade ourselves, but make improvements to the hurricane plan" says Corporal Paul Brothers of the South Carolina Highway Patrol. The exercise is meant to test the information flow from the emergency operation centers to the field and assess the procedures for lane reversals.

"They (law enforcement personal) will be stationed in routes all the way from Charleston to Columbia. and the traffic control points are already pre-determined and already in the evacuation plan" says Corporal Paul Brothers of the South Carolina Highway Patrol. At these traffic points, law enforcement and the SCDOT will work together to redirect the interstate into a large one-way street.

With an above average hurricane season expected this year, local and state agencies are ready to lead an evacuation no matter how massive. The expected lane reversals during a hurricane direct Interstate 26 traffic only in the westbound direction to Columbia. These lane reversals will also be in effect for all routes heading away from the coast.