Coastal Preparedness Workshop

The format of USC-CPHP’s Coastal Workshop is a scenario-based discussion of a terrorism event in the Charleston area, guided by expert facilitators. The list of those invited to participate in the workshop includes representatives from local, regional and federal agencies as well as stakeholders such as DHEC, NOAA, the Emergency Management Divisions, SC Coast Guard, local police, fire and EMS departments, public schools, regional hospitals, the Charleston Chamber of Commerce, and the American Red Cross. The environment of the Workshops is designed to be low-stress in order to encourage participants to freely share information on their agencies' capabilities.

Three previous workshops have been held, in October 2003, March 2005 and March 2006.  The most recent workshop occurred on March 6-7, 2006, at the Francis Marion Hotel in downtown Charleston.   This workshop's scenario discussion revolved around the dispersal of a novel flu-like virus in the port of Charleston by terrorists, and the resulting flu outbreak in the surrounding area. 

The March 2005 workshop revolved around discussion of a scenario of simultaneous radiological blasts in two Charleston marinas during a fishing tournament. Facilitators used a standard set of questions to help participants discuss issues relating to incident command, risk communication, legal protocols, detection and monitoring, and medical and psychosocial issues surrounding a radiological event. On the second day of the workshop, three breakout groups were used to further discuss preparation, response, or recovery issues. Goals of the workshop were: increasing participants’ skills and knowledge, identifying local area issues, and facilitating networking and relationship building across local, state and federal agencies or stakeholders.

The October 2003 workshop revolved around discussion of a scenario involving cruise ship passengers experiencing Norwalk-like symptoms and a potential terrorist plot involving the biological toxin ricin. Facilitators used a standard set of questions to help participants identify health care issues and concerns, security and safety issues for the port and harbor, information management, media and public relations issues, and incident command coordination issues. After the discussion, participant breakout groups were used to identify resources and capabilities of participating agencies, to elicit communication strategies, and to identify and prioritize training and research needs. Findings of each group were shared with the entire set of participants.

For more information, please contact the Coastal Project Coordinator, Joselyn Burdine, at burdinjr@gwm.sc.edu.

This publication was supported by Cooperative Agreement U90/CCU424245-03 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  The contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent official views of the CDC.