SUMMERVILLE, S.C. (WCSC) – Dorchester County is taking a closer look at the security and resilience of its infrastructure.
The county held its first-ever critical infrastructure summit on Thursday at the Dorchester Emergency Operations Center in Summerville. Critical infrastructure spanning energy, transportation, emergency services and communications is essential to Dorchester County’s economy and public safety.
Presentations were not open to the public or media due to the “sensitivity of the event,” according to the county. Dorchester County Sheriff’s Office Chief of Staff Steven Young said there wasn’t a particular incident that prompted their first critical infrastructure summit. Instead, it was to make connections and come up with a plan for resiliency for potential future emergencies.
“Today is also about exchanging those business cards with folks that may not have ever had the opportunity to meet each other so that the disaster day isn’t the first time they’ve ever shaken hands, they can build relationships from here.,” Dorchester County Director of Emergency Management Thomas McNeal said.
Dorchester County Emergency Management and the Dorchester County Sheriff’s Office brought in SC Ports Authority, SC State Law Enforcement Division, Dominion Energy, FBI Columbia and CISA for the summit. The meeting was meant to inform intelligence on current threat landscapes, risk mitigation strategies and available federal and state resources.
“Being able to identify the resources and also being able to identify the experts in different fields and that’s from the private sector to the public sector. So this is about a networking event and we’re talking to each other to decide who has what resources and who can I reach out to if I need it,” Young said.
Young added that Dorchester County is a very fast growing place and there is more new infrastructure coming in quickly so they saw a need for the summit.
Officials said they’ll likely continue to host summits like this in the future.
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