None of us really want to think about the Hurricane season, but it officially began on June 1.  Over Memorial Day Weekend, our Public Safety Department provided residents and visitors with some great information about preparing for hurricanes (as well as making homes fire safe.) One great resource they distributed was the Charleston County Preparedness brochure, which you can download right from the county website (pictured here). It’s a great reference and reminder of what we all need to do to prepare for Hurricanes.  Kim came to coffee today to remind us all to have a plan in place to secure our homes, and speak with any necessary contractors now.  The staff will take about four days to secure the community buildings, which means that they will begin to close hurricane shutters even before it is definite that a storm is headed our way.

The Isle of Palms Fire Department is hosting their own emergency preparedness seminar today, Friday– Isle of Palms and Sullivan’s Island Disaster Expo from 5:00-7:00PM on June 18 at the Isle of Palms Public Safety Building at 30 J.C. Long Boulevard.  So if you weren’t on the island for Memorial Day, you can still get some good info.

The island has an emergency calling system to alert owners of evacuation procedures and provide information about when the ferry will end and resume service to the island.  You should make sure that Amy has correct phone numbers on file for you with the system.

You need to have a re-entry sticker on your car.  You get them from City Hall on IOP.  Issued by Isle of Palms, the current decal is valid for 2010-2014 (5 years). If you do not have a decal and plan to return to the Island after a hurricane, you will need to contact Isle of Palms City Hall and provide your name, address and the license plate number, make and year of the car you will be driving (Email: lauram@iop.net or Phone: 843-886-6428). You can pick this up or they can mail it to you.

The Dewees Island POA website has information about getting ready and when we begin to evacuate.  There’s also an article on Hurricane Cleanup.

Good weather sites:  This is a link to an old post of Reggie’s about good sources for weather information.