CHARLESTON, W.Va. — State and local agencies across West Virginia are continuing preparations for Hurricane Florence as the weather system approaches the coast of the Carolinas.
Meteorologists predict the storm to make landfall Friday afternoon before traveling westward toward South Carolina and Georgia, then moving northwest toward Appalachia and Tennessee.
Gov. Jim Justice issued a state of preparedness on Tuesday to allow the mobilization of resources.
In a Wednesday press release, the Justice administration detailed its response plan for Florence as well as preparation for possible emergencies.
“We want to ensure that we are ready to respond to our citizens as quickly as possible when this storm hits and in its aftermath,” he said.
According to the governor’s office, fifty members of the West Virginia National Guard have been put on duty status across the state and 13 guardsmen have been dispatched to the National Guard Coordination Center for South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia.
Twenty members of the West Virginia Air National Guard assisted in preparing a staging area for disaster relief supplies; around 70 tractor-trailer loads of supplies are at the 167th Airlift Wing in Martinsburg.
The state Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety fully activated its State Emergency Operations Center on Wednesday for possible coordination of government and volunteer response efforts.
The state Department of Environment Protection is communicating with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in case of additional resources needed for air monitoring, sampling and possible hazardous threats.
On a local level, Kanawha County emergency officials and National Weather Service meteorologists met Wednesday for a table-top drill to plan for possible flooding due of Florence.
C.W. Sigman, the county’s emergency management director, said the purpose of the exercise was to understand the duties of other agencies in the region.
“Sometimes, you forget about other people out in the world that are doing other jobs than what you are doing,” he said.
“We need to let the public know what could happen, that way they are making good decisions,” he added. “More people who are doing like they do on the coast and evacuate, the better off it is and the fewer people in danger.”
Jamie Casto Bielinski, the meteorologist-in-charge of the National Weather Service’s Charleston office, said based on Wednesday’s reports, there is a chance for between two and seven inches of rain from the remnants of Florence.
“It just depends, honestly. We’re trying to determine once it comes on shore where it will move,” she said. “What’s going on is no flow whatsoever when this hurricane comes on shore. They’re having a difficult time determining where to move this system to. If it moves a certain direction, we could be impacted further. If it moves down to the south, a lot less rain if any rain for us.”
North and South Carolina have ordered mandatory evacuations for coastal counties.