Letter: Emergency management needs help

Following are observations from Hurricane Matthew from an emergency management perspective. These are not criticisms but observations that hopefully get incorporated into a lessons-learned exercise.

I followed social media and news reports and did not see a Unified Incident Command System in place. What I did see was a top-down approach that worked well at the state level but did not serve Beaufort County well.

I heard many references to the sheriff, however looking at the county procedures, I see there should have been a task force appointed by the legislature and chaired by the county administrator. The sheriff is included in the task force but not the lead.

My concern is: were the county procedures followed, and do the county procedures specify a Unified Incident Command?

I received most information from Sen. Tom Davis, Bluffton Mayor Lisa Sukla and Gov. Nikki Haley. I have worked in emergency management most of my 44-year career, and in my opinion, Beaufort County is behind in best practices. This needs to change as our county grows and becomes sophisticated.

The sheriff should not be the incident commander; the office plays too critical a role in the task force. I did not witness Unified Incident Command protocol being followed.

Last, the reports from the utilities were woefully inadequate. I have seen utility executives lose jobs for this type of performance. I hope there is a serious “lessons-learned” session and follow up. This is hard work and we have the right people in place to make improvements. I am available to help.

This story was originally published October 20, 2016 at 2:02 PM with the headline "Letter: Emergency management needs help."