Thursday, Sep. 10, 2009
homeland security: how has post-sept. 11 landscape changed along the strand?
Eight years ago, if somebody thought there was a bomb planted anywhere in Horry or Georgetown counties, authorities had to call Shaw Air Force Base in Sumter or - if the Shaw bomb squad wasn't available - wait for a State Law Enforcement Division (SLED) unit to show up from 130 miles away in Columbia.
Then Sept. 11, 2001, happened.
The country would never be the same. Not only was the national psyche shaken and scarred by the deaths of more than 2,000 people and the carnage that played out live on TV screens, but awareness of the terrorism threat became a permanent part of the culture as well. Now, if there's a bomb scare in Myrtle Beach - or anywhere else in the Pee Dee area - specially trained personnel and a bomb-detecting robot based in Horry County respond to the situation.
That's just one of the major changes that have taken place here since Sept. 11.
The area now has teams ready to take matters into their own hands to address terrorism, chemical and biological weapons, and other similar threats that were once the stuff of movies and paperback thrillers, but now are on everyone's radar - even in the heart of our tourism and retirement Mecca.
Law enforcement, emergency workers and local governments in the area now regularly use terms like "weapons of mass destruction" and "haz-mat" when planning training exercises.
"A lot of people visit Horry County, and that's a major safety consideration," said Randy Webster, director of emergency management for Horry County. "We're a potential target just because we're a major resort area. We're not high up on the list of security concerns, but we're definitely not low either."
Webster said Sept. 11 changed the field of emergency management.
"My job has changed dramatically," he said. "Before that, those of us in emergency management never got too involved in issues such as terrorism or dealing with chemical spills or weapons. We were mainly in the natural disaster world. Now, we connect with all people and all agencies."
Horry and Georgetown counties have both adopted a response framework called the "incident command structure" which had been in force for years in California and was adopted nationwide after Sept. 11 as the National Incident Management System. It's an on-scene management concept that can be adapted for any type of disaster or incident that involves multiple agencies.
Under the structure, the first responder, or "first-on-scene" agency, is considered to be in charge of the situation until it is resolved or another leader is put in place. There are also standard protocols for communication and deployment of resources. "If I'm asked to respond to an incident in North Carolina, I can work myself into one of those established positions and keep on keeping on," Webster said. "It's supposed to help relieve the chaos and bring uniformity to a situation. When FEMA or the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers comes in to assist in South Carolina or Horry County specifically, they'll be dealing with people who have the same kind of qualifications they would anywhere in the country."
He said the county is now working more closely with the Army National Guard and other military branches in disaster planning, and county emergency workers now regularly hold major training exercises with the military.
Through federal grants, Horry County now hosts two major regional response teams. A Chemical Ordinance Biological and Radiological Response Team (COBRA) is equipped to respond to hazardous materials spills or a chemical terrorism incident anywhere in the Pee Dee region. The county's explosive and ordinance bomb team includes a $200,000 robot able to detect and disarm explosive devices.
Horry County is now also the host county for a regional medical assistance team. In the spring, the medical teams worked with other area responders in a massive exercise that replicated what would happen if a major hurricane left it impossible to access the part of the county east of the Intracoastal Waterway, i.e. miles and miles of beach and beach-front accommodations and residences.
Webster said communications among law enforcement agencies around the state has also been streamlined. He said the improved system allowed law enforcement and planners around the state to find out very quickly about the arrest of two Egyptian college students discovered carrying illegal explosives in their car near Goose Creek in August 2007.
Flying the Friendly (?) skies
The most obvious changes after Sept. 11 came at the nation's airports, and those changes affected the Myrtle Beach International Airport as well.
Employees of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) carry out the required searches before passengers head to their gates, and you no longer can walk through with Grandma to say goodbye to her at the gate.
The airport is run by Horry County, and Webster said airport officials work with the Horry County Police Department to keep the terminal and the airport property safe. For obvious reasons, he can't go into specifics about many of the security efforts.
Law enforcement is also playing a bigger role these days in maintaining security at the area's smaller airports, such as North Myrtle Beach's Grand Strand Airport. There are also tighter security details, supplied by the Georgetown County Sheriff's Department, at Georgetown County Airport and the smaller Andrews airport, said Cindy Grace, emergency management coordinator for Georgetown County.
Guarding the rails, rivers and roads
Georgetown County has many of the same security concerns as Horry County, but also some unique ones because of the amount of industry in the county and a state-run port facility, Grace said.
"Transportation is a concern here because we always have trucks coming through here from the entire state, as well as a large amount of rail coming through Georgetown," she said.
Emergency workers in the Georgetown area monitor trains and their cargos carefully, to avoid not only a potential terrorist incident but also a repeat of the deadly chlorine spill in Graniteville in 2005. Pleasure boat traffic along the area's multiple rivers is monitored by a combination of the Department of Natural Resources and local law enforcement. Georgetown and Horry County officials also work extensively with the U.S. Coast Guard to monitor pleasure boats and detect any suspicious activity.
Securing the ports
Anyone who lives in a major port city or even in close proximity to one knows the security challenge these bustling centers of commerce can present. South Carolina's two ports - Charleston and Georgetown - are visited by hundreds of ships unloading thousands of tons of cargo every year. These containers are then loaded onto trucks which carry them - largely via the interstates - to stores and businesses all over the Carolinas and beyond.
One of the biggest fears since Sept. 11 is that terrorists will attempt to smuggle weapons of mass destruction or bomb-making materials into the country in shipping containers. The worst-case scenario, theorists say, would be a small nuclear warhead hidden away in a container and then detonated in a major population center.
The nation's ports are divided into tiers depending on how large they are, said Byron Miller, director of public relations for the South Carolina State Ports Authority in Charleston. He said huge ports like Los Angeles and New York City are considered "Tier 1" because of the huge volume of cargo they handle, as well as the amount of dangerous materials such as chemicals and petroleum products that come through those ports.
Charleston is considered "Tier 2."
The port at Georgetown is not as high a security risk because of its size, layout and the materials it handles, Miller said.
"Georgetown handles different commodities - bulk commodities such as packages, crates, pallets and loose materials," he said. "When you look at Charleston for comparison, we have five terminals in three different municipalities, on thousands of acres. Compare that to Georgetown, where it's easier for everybody to know what's going on."
Security at the port is provided by the Georgetown County Sheriff's Department through an arrangement with the South Carolina State Ports Authority.
"The biggest efforts at the Georgetown port since Sept. 11 have centered on access control," said Miller. "There's a new gate complex there. It literally was an open gate before. We've also improved the security fencing and lighting, and there's tighter monitoring of access."
Miller said Georgetown is also affected by stricter port and shipping security requirements that went into effect nationwide after Sept. 11. Prior to docking at a port, ships must now send their crew lists to the U.S. Coast Guard so the names can be checked against lists of known terrorists. Ships also have to turn in their cargo manifests in advance.