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Web posted Monday, August
16, 2004
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Editorial: Jasper officials earn kudos for
Hurricane Charley effort
Carolina Morning News
Jasper
County citizens should take a great deal of pride
in the way their emergency officials handled
Hurricane Charley.
Beaufort County
officials did a good job, too.
But you
probably saw them on TV or heard them on the
radio. They tend to get a lot of air time when
hurricanes are bearing down.
Emergency
officials in Jasper work just as hard with just as
much at stake, but often do so behind the scenes,
out of the public eye, and often with less
resources.
Well, they did a great job since
the very day Hurricane Charley started looking our
way.
By Thursday they had a good idea where
the storm was headed and made sure the public
knew, too. Rudy Smith, Jasper County's deputy
administrator for public works, had his crews
ready for the worst by Thursday afternoon. "Trucks
and vehicles are ready to go," he said, "and
chainsaws are sharpened."
That was a small
bit of comforting news for people who were looking
for all the comfort they could at the end of last
week.
Jasper County School Superintendent
William Singleton also got it right. He said
Thursday that school would be held but would
dismiss early, and he stuck to his guns. It turned
out to be the appropriate decision in Jasper
County. (Beaufort County officials also made the
correct decision in deciding against school on
Friday. Traffic was horrible on Hilton Head Island
Friday afternoon when many parents would have
wanted to pick up their children from school and
make family plans.)
By Friday morning,
Jasper officials were sending out periodic updates
to the press with all the pertinent information
about the storm, including its strength and
direction. The releases sent out by Jasper County
Emergency Services Director Mike Hodges and his
staff were not alarmist, but they weren't
sugar-coated either. He told people what they
needed to know, when they needed to know
it.
Hodges' job comes with a lot of
pressure, but he and his staff proved to be up to
the task.
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