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    Evacuation & Reentry

    Notification Alerts

    Sign up for the Town’s emergency notifications system CodeRED.  CodeRED is used to communication to residents in emergency situations or critical community alerts such as evacuation notices, boil water notices, tornado warnings, and flash flood notices.

    Evacuation Procedures

    When a hurricane threatens South Carolina’s coast, you may plan to leave voluntarily or you may be ordered to evacuate. Charleston County no longer issues voluntary evacuation orders; however based on reports from the National Weather Service, the Governor, and Charleston County EPD, the Mayor will issue a recommendation to evacuate the island.

    By evacuating early, you will be able to pick your own evacuation route. If you wait for an evacuation order, you will be told which route to take. You could be stuck in traffic and you may not be able to find accommodations. Vehicles may be prohibited from crossing bridges due to strong winds. You are strongly encouraged to leave early before an evacuation order.

    BE ADVISED After an evacuation order is issued and completed, Kiawah Island Utility and Berkeley Electric may turn off their services. If you chose to remain on-island, you may not have power or water until a thorough post disaster damage assessment has been performed. There will be no medical, fire, rescue or police assistance available on the island. Even after the event, depending on the damage to the island, you may not get assistance for several days. After an evacuation order is issued, water and electrical utility workers, law enforcement, fire department, EMS and KICA security will leave the island when it is no longer safe to stay

    Learn More About Flood Awareness

    To learn more about how to prepare for coastal related disasters please see the following all-inclusive guides:

    Zone A

    Evacuation Zone

    Kiawah/Seabrook Island is in ZONE A. When an evacuation order is issued, local authorities will announce evacuations for the county by predesignated zones. The Tricounty area including Charleston, Berkeley and Dorchester County is classified as the Central Coast. The Central coast is divided into evacuation zones A-I. Local authorities will announce evacuations by designated zones.

    Evacuation Route

    If an evacuation order is issued, Evacuees from Kiawah/Seabrook Islands will take Road S-20 (Bohicket/Main Rd.) to US 17. They will then take US 17 south to SC 64. SC 64 where you will go to Walterboro, then to North Augusta.

    In the event of a Evacuation, the following actions will be taken:

    • KICA Security will ultimately block the incoming gate to all but emergency and official vehicles.
    • Providing its equipment is not being used, the St. John’s/Kiawah Island fire personnel will broadcast the evacuation order throughout the island using loudspeakers.
    • When an evacuation has been determined to be essentially complete, the Kiawah Emergency Operations Center will be relocated to an offsite location as indicated by the Mayor.

    Post Storm and Re-Entry

    The condition and safety of the island will be reviewed by County, Town and KICA officials before any property owners will be allowed to return. Re-entry procedures will vary depending on the severity of the natural disaster but will generally be performed in stages to facilitate an orderly return to the Island following an evacuation. The time lapse between Stage 1 to Stage 3 could be hours, days or weeks depending on the severity of the event.

    Phase 1: Damage Assessment Team. Town and KICA representatives, building officials, insurance adjusters, regime and property managers will work to generally assess the damage and will report results to the Town.

    Phase 2: Critical needs personnel and Disaster Response Team. Will include Town, KICA, KIGR, KP, KI Utility, Berkeley Electric and other emergency personnel. These entities will coordinate recovery activities. Coordination will continue until the Island has been substantially restored to pre-storm conditions.

    Phase 3: Once the ALL CLEAR has been given, residents and property owners will be allowed to return.

    REMEMBER You will be wasting your time if you attempt to return to the Island before the ALL CLEAR has been given by Town officials. Re-entry information will be disseminated via CodeRED, email notification, the Town website and social media.

    Damage Assessments

    The Town will complete a preliminary damage assessment which entails Town building officials performing a windshield survey looking for visible structural damage to commercial and private properties (i.e., structures torn apart or dismantled). The purpose of inspection is only to identify where obvious major damage has occurred. It does not take into account damage such as missing shingles, damaged siding, trees that have fallen on cars, etc.

    Following any hurricane, there is always the potential for trees to fall at a later time, causing significant structural damage to houses. If you return from evacuation and find structural damage to your home,  please call the Town at 843-768-9166.

    If the assessment shows structural damage to a property the damage assessment team will issue a red placard that signifies the structure is “unsafe” and no entry is permitted.

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    A yellow placard signifies that the structure is “restricted for use”. These structures have received some form of damage and only the area identified is prohibited from entering.

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    A green placard signifies that the structure has been inspected and is “okay to occupy”.

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