Horry County Local Emergency Planning Committee meets

HORRY COUNTY, S.C. (WBTW) — Horry County officials met Monday for the local Emergency Planning Committee Meeting to discuss future plans and updates.

The meeting gave local emergency management, state emergency management and critical partners the chance to be in the same room to discuss important topics and situations that may be going on.

The local committee meets four times per year. Many organizations were in attendance and had the opportunity to provide any updates and ask questions.

The importance of the meetings is to get together in a stress-free environment, discuss what would happen in an emergency and make sure everyone understands their roles and responsibilities.

After the discussion, they spoke about the significant risk that Horry County poses when it comes to wildfires.

“We’ve had some very large fires in our history. The most recent large event was back in 2009, the Highway 31 fire. So, what we’re doing today with these partners is we actually are going to run a full-scale tabletop exercise led by South Carolina Forestry Commission,” said Thomas Bell, the director of public information for the county. “Just to kind of test our capabilities, test our knowledge, so we are ready should a wildfire break out again in Horry County.”

The next meeting will take place in 2024.