Be ready for anything this hurricane season

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WEST COLUMBIA, S.C. (WOLO) — The South Carolina Emergency Management Division is hoping for the best, but wants you to prepare for the worst. Public Information Director Joe Farmer says it doesn’t matter what the forecasts say, because it only takes one hurricane to destroy a region. “In so many different ways, a hurricane becomes a statewide event,” Farmer says. If evacuations are ordered along the coast, residents seek shelter with family and friends inland. Though, the damage can be just as far-reaching in the Upstate. SCEMD wants you to be ready for whatever this hurricane season might bring. You should have enough supplies to last you and your family three days. “There could be some situations where help can’t get to you,” Public Information Coordinator Derrec Becker says. In an age of technology, being ready includes keeping enough battery life in your cell phones, and having them stocked beforehand with useful offline applications. “You know a good flashlight app in a power outage would really help you out,” Becker says. Both Farmer and Becker note that a major storm hasn’t taken direct aim at the state since Hurricane Hugo in 1989. “We’ll all hope that nothing comes this way, but we want to be prepared in case something does,” Farmer says.