EMG Unit 7 Essay

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Columbia Southern University *

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Geography

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Jan 9, 2024

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1 Disaster Preparedness Essay: Charleston, SC Christian Hallock Columbia Southern University EMG 6301 Dr. Milen October 12, 2023

2 Disaster Preparedness Essay: Charleston, SC Charleston, South Carolina is a beautiful and diverse place to live that provides its citizens with an abundance of activities, wonderful options for living. However, during the months of around June through November, the expectation is that a hurricane will somehow affect this community. Each development off the coast of Africa is tracked closely to determine the potential development into a hurricane and then the potential path of the storm. Most famously, Hurricane Hugo made landfall on Charleston, which caused extensive damage to the city and surrounding areas. Since then, Charleston has developed and implemented extensive plans for hurricane preparation and rebuilding of not only the city but of the basic needs of its residents. The City of Charleston is a combination of a peninsula with that connects to the mainland and includes the areas known as West Ashley, James Island, Johns Island, and Daniel Island. According to the 2020 census, Charleston has a population of four hundred seventeen thousand nine hundred and eighty-one (417,891) (Charleston, 2020). Average home value is $569,000 in the local area which includes the historical Battery where the average home value is over 1 million dollars. Charleston is built on marsh land and experiences tidal flooding throughout the year during rains due to this. It is because of this high-water table that basements are not approved and utilities such as electric and cable/phone must be above ground and exposed to the elements. The City of Charleston is most famous for its role in the believed start of the Civil War when several forts fired upon Fort Sumter. One natural disaster that historically causes the United States a great deal of damage, recovery, and rebuilding is the hurricane. What a hurricane is can best be described by Elsner and Jagger (2013), “A hurricane is an areas of low air pressure over the warm tropical ocean. The low

3 pressure creates showers and thunderstorms that start the winds rotating” (para. 1). Once the storm becomes stable, it is then powered by the warm water temperatures heating the air in the storm. This air is pulled up in a spiral to the top of the storm. The strength of a hurricane is measured by the sustained wind speeds. A fully formed storm will have a well-developed eyewall in the center of the storm. With the “engine” of the storm being the moisture, temperature, and pressure of the weather system, it will immediately lose strength once it encounters land. However, that area of impact will sustain the most damage from the winds and rains the hurricane produces, (Elsner, et. al. 2013). A hurricane that makes landfall on the City of Charleston, can cause extensive damage not only to the structures, but to the infrastructure as well. The cities electrical grid, being fully above ground, would see several damaged poles, transformers, and other grid equipment that would cause massive blackouts throughout the area. This would also cause major communication difficulties through inoperable cell phone towers and land phone lines. Winds from the storm cause this damage as well as the pop-up tornados that tend to develop within the storm itself. With winds pushing speeds above 150 miles per hour, damage is caused by the winds and what the winds are blowing: debris. Flooding is affected by several factors: tidal status and overall rainfall. As noted, Charleston will flood from a normal rainstorm, especially if high tide is in effect. If a hurricane were to make impact during high tide, the rainfall, the tidal waters, and breaches in the sea walls would all be factors that would make the flooding of the city extremely bad. This flooding will cause severe issues for the water systems of the city as well. Not only would the city water supply potentially become contaminated, but the wastewater system would become severely

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