SC officials urge preparation as hurricane season gets underway [Video]

COLUMBIA, S.C. – Hurricane season is just getting underway for 2024, and South Carolina leaders say they are as prepared as ever for a major storm this year.

But they stress individual South Carolinians need to be ready, too.

Gov. Henry McMaster gathered emergency management officials, state agency heads, and others Thursday at the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center to test South Carolina’s emergency operations plan for this hurricane season, which began last Saturday and runs through the end of November.

“I just hope we don’t have to put it into play, but as they say, hope is not a plan, so we are planned and ready to go if necessary,” Maj. General Van McCarty, South Carolina’s adjutant general, said.

During their two-hour tabletop exercise, state officials ran through their plan to respond to a major hurricane, using a Category 4 as their example, the same strength storm as the devasting …