In South Carolina, it's important for everyone to be prepared for hurricanes. While hurricanes aren't preventable, we can take actions that help us protect ourselves and our families during these weather emergencies.

Event Cancellations

Office Closures

All state government offices and their employees follow the weather hazard decisions made by the county government offices where the state office is located. For more information, please visit www.scemd.org/closings.

Emergency Meal Planning

When a hurricane or other disaster strikes, kidney dialysis patients may be without their normal scheduled dialysis treatments until electrical power in hospitals or renal dialysis facilities have been restored. It is important to follow a limited diet if dialysis has to be missed. Therefore, dialysis patients will have to extend the life of their last treatment by watching their diets.

Each year, the Healthcare/Hospital Preparedness Program sponsors a summit to advance preparedness, communication, and collaboration among community health care organizations, response partners and public health entities.

Your hospital, health care system or community may qualify for funds through grants and cooperative agreements that can be used to:

State Program Administrators

Director, Bureau of Emergency Preparedness and Response: Louis Eubank
Office of Public Health Preparedness
Telephone: (803) 832-8121

• HPP Overview and Mission
• Grant Requirements and Guidance
• Training and Exercises

DPH disaster preparedness training opportunities are focused on:

• Health care system preparedness
• Health care system recovery
• Emergency operations coordination
• Fatality management
• Information sharing
• Medical surge
• Responder safety and health
• Volunteer management

• Healthcare Preparedness Capabilities, November 2016 (PDF)
• From Hospitals to Healthcare Coalitions: Transforming Healthcare Preparedness and Response in our communities (PDF)

For more information, contact your regional Public Health Preparedness

The South Carolina Health Care Coalition Advisory Council provides guidance and policy direction to achieve the goals set by the U.S. Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) Hospital Preparedness Program (HPP).

The council also: