Charleston encourages residents to create damage reports after Ian

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - City of Charleston officials say it is important to get a full profile of hurricane damages across the area so the city can report for state and federal relief funding.

That’s why Director of Emergency Operations Ben Almquist encourages people to submit damage reports, no matter the magnitude.

Charleston residents can submit those damage reports through the city’s website at this link.

“We use all that information to assess what resources are going to be available to us whether it’s FEMA funding or there are some state resources that we can utilize. Sometimes we have to utilize private organizations such as United Way, Red Cross, those avenues,” Almquist says.

City crews have restored all 97 traffic signals that lost power and re-opened all 66 closed roads that had flooding. Crews have also cleaned up garbage from about 40 trash cans that overturned during the storm.

Almquist says the city was fully prepared and ready to handle everything that came its way during Hurricane Ian. When asked if anything, in particular, could have been done better, Almquist says no, but adds there is always room for general improvement.

“We’re always going to keep working at what we do. There’s going to be an official after-action process where we go through and we analyze what worked well. For us, what can we make a little bit better, and how do we go about making those changes that we need,” he says.

Almquist reminds people that Hurricane season extends through the end of November and to remain prepared.

“It’s easy to kind of breathe that sigh of relief after a storm. But we are still in hurricane season. So we want the public to remain vigilant. Keep an eye on the tropics we go,” he says.

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