CCFR-EMD 2025 Business Preparedness Workshop
Colleton Fire
[{'start': '5.304', 'end': '9.842', 'text': ">> Colleton Fire: Hey, good  morning everybody. I'm Dr. David  Green. I'm the deputy chief with  Colleton, County Fire Rescue and  Colleton. County's emergency  manager. Want to welcome  everybody in person and welcome  everybody that's watching online  to other our second annual  Colleton, County Business  Preparedness Workshop. We have  a number of presenters here  today that are going to offer  our small business and industry  and Colleton, County a wealth of  information and we hope you can  use that to get prepared for  the next disaster.  the agenda that we're going to  cover, today, we're going to  talk about Well we're gonna  have Dr. Krista Massey up here  first and we're going to talk  about business preparedness and  recovery the local emergency  planning committee and we'll  talk about data, security,  backups and off-site access,  physical security business  re-entry, local planning energy  and infrastructure, and then  recovery. And we'll talk about  insurance concerns, South  Carolina, small business.   Development Center, and SBA  loans. Then we'll have a Q&A  session to also answer any of  your questions. If you're not  here in person you're watching  online, you can submit  questions right now. If you like  this link, it's Www.com  colleton. and we get to the Q&A  session at the end. We'll be   glad to entertain the questions  that you have. So we'll start  on. Welcome Dr. Chris Tomasi,  the president of the Colleton,  Chamber of Commerce  Thank you, David. I just want to  say Welcome to everybody. Good  morning, I am Dr. Krista Massey  the executive director or  president of the Colleton County  Chamber of Commerce. We are just  one month away from the start of  hurricane  season. So it is super  imperative that businesses are  prepared and have a plan  in the event of an emergency.  Last year we saw Hurricane  Helene. Really impact the  upstate. So let's go ahead and  be prepared this year. We have a  great lineup of speakers today.  The Chamber is always here to  help filter any of those   concerns. For the businesses,  the chamber is there for the  businesses. So, if you have the  need, please contact me at  Colleton, Chamber of Commerce or  Chelsea, Edisto Chamber of  Commerce for your concerns. So,  I hope that everybody will take  the information that they learn  today and be prepared as we  start hurricane season this  year. Thank you. but you  Crystal,  So next, I'd like to welcome.  Miss Sandy Steel, Mr. Brantley  Strickland Sandy is interim,  Economic Development, Director.  And of course Mr. Brantley  Strickland is our new economic  development director. So  welcome. Thank you for being  here. Good morning, everyone.  Y'all are so quiet. You need  coffee, you need to go. And so I  am Sandy Steel. I'm a retired  economic developer. Who now does  consulting and has been my honor  to serve as the interim economic  developer for Colleton County  since Hayward Horton. Retired  at the end of last year. I am  excited to be with you this   morning. I'm even more excited  to introduce to you, your new  economic developer, who came on  board. Monday Brantley.  Strickland is here with us. I   work with Brantley for many,  many years. He has over 10 years  and economic development  experience. He is a South  Carolina, certified economic  developer. He's worked at the  local, the county as well as the  regional level as well as   serving on state boards such as  South Carolina Economic  Developers Association. So it  is a very much an honor for me  to introduce Brantley.  Strickland Colleton County's  economic developer.  Well, thank you Sandy. And thank  everybody for the warm welcome.  I'm really surprised she  remembered so many of my  credentials so Kind of amazing  considered the night she had  last night. She was telling me  about, but on excited to be  here,  like Sandy alluded to been doing  this for about 10 years. I know  a lot of you out here from my  previous life as a newspaper  guy, I want to apologize for  some of that right off the right  off the jump here, but just  super excited to be in Colleton.  My home county feel like my  career has been a journey and  kind of all roads have led right  here. So where I want to be  to the industrial business  community, just wanted to say  the Colleton, County Economic  Alliance and the event of a  storm of an event. We're here  to help. We want to connect you  to all the resources that are   available to help you get back  to normal operations. Because we  know that if you're not in  operations, you're losing money.  And we want everybody to do well  here. So,  With that. Just be glad to  answer any questions later and  I'd be with you today.  Thank you, this and Brantley,  appreciate it. So next we're  gonna have Miss April Wilson,  she's with the South Carolina   Department of Commerce and she's  gonna be talking about business  and industry and April's been a  big advocate for Colleton  County. We work with her quite a  a bit, and we're very happy to  have we're here today.  Hi, good morning everybody. Like  David said, My name is April  Wilson, I am the private sector  liaison for South Carolina.  That's what the FEMA name is for  me. I'm the business and  industry emergency manager. So  at the end of the day, if you  are for-profit in South  Carolina, it is my job to  service you and I'm very happy  to do that before I get started  in my presentation, I want to  challenge you. We heard the  chamber and the economic  development group, talk about  how important it is for  businesses to be prepared for  disaster. I'd like to challenge  you to think about why it is  important that you're prepared.  I know you know, downtime that  equals money. Um but in the long  run, you know why is it And I  have a little graphic here. I  pulled from the Quake Smart tool  just to show you some  statistics on why it is  important. And I know I've been  saying some of these for years  because David remembers them  very clearly every time  that I come to present at the  Lepc or any form in Colleton  County, but 40% of small  businesses are not likely to  reopen following a disaster like  immediately. A year later,  we're likely to lose 25% more of  our small businesses and within  three years for the businesses  who did not have some kind of  recovery strategy, or business  continuity plan. We're likely to  lose, 75% more again. These are  naturals national statistics,  not just South Carolina but it  is sad to see when we lose some  of our businesses following  disaster, just due to them not  having a plan or being  prepared. So, That is why the  resources like us. All of us who  are speaking. Today, are here   to help you So, a little bit  about the emergency management  program at Commerce, so I am   constantly out in the field, I  am a team of one and I cover all  46 counties. So please reach  out to me and if I you do not  hear from me immediately and  would like, to, please feel  free to put me or send me a  text, and I'm happy to touch   base with you, but I'm  constantly developing  partnerships whether they're  with the private sector. The  public sector or nonprofits. I  am sharing business continuity  resources. Some of them are  free. Some of them are not, I  handle the South Carolina  Business reentry program. I am  the South Carolina Department of  Commerce. Is the coordinating  agency for a response function  dedicated to business and  industry and an economic  recovery support function. I  serve on three national working  groups and I'm also a member of  the South Carolina, Emergency  Management Association, which we  are about to kick off our  private sector caucus on June  11th. So I'm very excited about  that. It'll be from 10 to noon  at the South Carolina, Emergency  Management Division. If you are  interested in attending that  meeting Free to send me.  an email with your name and  email address included or any  details of all the people from  your group. Who would like to  come, we are happy to have you  join us The point of that caucus  is for the to be driven for and  by the private sector to  discuss what matters most to  them. And with regards to   emergency management and see how  we could further integrate,  private sector into every phase  of a disaster. So moving on to  preparing for a disaster. So  some of the things I would like  every business to think about if  you are not already is to  develop a plan to make sure your  employees, all of your  employees. The ones who need to  know have a copy of the plan,  you exercise it and that you  update it based on what you   learned throughout your  exercise. Most counties that  I'm a part go in and speak at  the county emergency management  office is happy to participate.  I've seen some businesses  involved their local emergency  management law enforcement fire  department and it comes out in  the end very well because then  those public sector partners are  very familiar, not only  industry, but your plan. So that  way, they're better responding  instances.  make sure employees one of the  best, I've been to business  prepared and work or  preparedness workshops for  anything across the board and  one of the best pieces of  advice I've ever learned is to  plan or train like you would   respond because then your mind  what your mind will not your  body will not go. where your  mind is never been. So, it is  very important to make sure you  exercise the plan. So other  things to consider or to make  sure that you're communicating,  not only with your employees,  but that you're, including that  your suppliers and your  customers, because anything that  impacts you is gonna impact  their supply chain as well. And  so you're gonna have somebody  talk to you about insurance  today, make sure that you are  aware of what exactly your   insurance will cover. We get  into situations where I will be  talking to businesses and they  will find out during a disaster  that their insurance coverage  wasn't renewed or that   something didn't happen or that  not everything was covered. So,  Make sure to tune into that part  of today's workshop as well.   During sunny days, guys. What I  am doing at the program is doing  presentations,  Just like this, working with  locals to do, presentations or  workshops. I am also dealing  with the state business,  re-entry program participating  in state local and national  exercises. So doing everything  we care can be prepared for any  disaster, whether it's a  hurricane, an earthquake, or a  man-made incident.  During the response phase, we  coordinate the emergency support  function, 24, It is business  and industry at the state level.  So we are in the state emergency  operations center and our goal  is to get businesses back up and  running and people back to work  as quickly as possible. The  partner agencies, you're going  to recognize some of these  people who are already in the  room. These are the third. We  are made up of 13 agencies and  organizations that serve the  private sector and some form or  fashion. Some of the ones are  in the room or department of  insurance, the small business   Development Center the believe  the chamber is also here as  well. They've already spoken  and the ones you see,  highlighted and teal. Those are  the ones who are in the State  Emergency Operations Center  along with the Department of   Commerce. So we staff 24/7 or  ask call to do. So, to answer  any direct inquiries, You may  have.  any, like, I've gotten question,  actually, I've gotten a phone  call where it's just somebody  who was scared to evacuate they  had never done it before, and  they needed to talk to somebody  about it. So it's customer  service at the end of the day.  But we are there email phone.   Anytime you need anything. We  also work very closely with the  locals Donna Lam And I are in  constant communication. We text  each other regularly. Same with  David Green, we share  information through our list,  serve that we do have. That's  the QR code.  to join the listserve. I'm  briefing on county and governor  call. So if there's any trends  that the private sector has,  seen feel free to share that  with me and happy to brief that  on those calls. I remember, one  of the common ones we got  during Hurricane. Helene was  clean out their stores because  they could not get access to  land fields to get rid of all  of their products. So that was a  popular one that I was able to  bring up on the county call. So,  if there's anything important to  you, please do share it. that  is the email and the phone  number that you can access and  get a hold of us at the State  Emergency Operations Center.  Again, we are connected at the  local level as well, not the  supercede them, but we are there  to support you as much as  possible. Some of the resources  we have available to you, the  first one, again, being our   listserv. We roughly have a  little over 5,500 members on  this list serve that we push  updates out to right now we do  quarterly alerts or quarterly   newsletters and non-disaster and  disaster alert. So during last  year's hurricane season, we  pushed out 24 disaster alerts  between Debbie Helene and   recovery. We also have pushed  out non disaster alerts. If  there's events going on like we  did an African swine fever  webinar. Whenever that entered  the Caribbean. So that is a  resource that is available to  you. We also have the South  Carolina, Emergency Businesses,  Resources, Dashboard. it's a  mouthful, but it is your  one-stop shop for all the  resources that you could need  in a disaster, you don't need a  login and the information  updates live. You've got your  runbridge closures, your shelter  locations, your power outages  executive orders, press releases  port status. All of that  information is in one spot and  again, you don't have to go  digging for and that is the QR  code for it as well. And then  probably one of the most popular  questions that we get during the  disaster is actually about  business reentry and I have  mentioned it already previously  in this presentation. So back in  2016,  I believe it was the South  Carolina, Retail Association  work to get a business, reentry  legislation passed. and it  charges South Carolina,  Emergency Management Division  with running the system. That  certified businesses who were  registered and found in good   standing with the South Carolina  Secretary of State's office for  into, get a reentry pass into  areas under curfew, or   evacuation order prior to the  General Public Department of  Commerce, being a partner. We  have we coordinate the front end  of that program. Market it and  deal with any issues that may  arise for businesses, who do   qualify for this system. You can  get registered in less than five  minutes during the automative  site. And the MOA, once you've  completed is good for three  years, we do ask that you use  that MOA, because that is what  is shared with the locals if   you do want to create a placard  that has your company logo on  it, we do ask that you, please,  please put the MOA on the back  because they are not looking for  your placard. They're looking  for that MOA. And they're like  anything. There is an exception  to the role. There are three   categories of businesses that  are not required to register  with the South Carolina  Secretary of State's office.  There's a sole providers general  partnerships and federal banks.  Unfortunately, if you business  falls into one of those  categories and you choose not to  register the Secretary of  State's office, we cannot give  you an MOA. However, you can get  onto our list serve and you   will get the latest information.  As soon as we do have it  available.  and also, South Carolina is a  home real estate so access even  if you have the state reentry  pass accessory entry is  ultimately decided at the local  level. So if they say, it's not  safe to get in that reentry  pass, is not going to get you   in. If you have an instance, we  have had industry who say, You  know, Hey I've got this certain  instance I've got to get to  there. Now give us a call and we  can work with the locals or if  you have Lamb or brantley's  contact information. Feel free  to give them a call as well,   But we will work together to see  what we can do to help you.  There are three Academy. So if  you have locations in multiple  counties, there are three  counties who have their own  local Rancho program. Those are  Beaufort Dorchester and Ori   Charleston. Originally did have  a program but they just elected  to get rid of theirs. Buford  their application period  actually closed yesterday. So  they are only open January  through April of each calendar  year. And, again, the state   program does not supersede the  county program. as I mentioned  the beginning, we also  coordinate the economic recovery  support function I will say  this, I know businesses are not  required to report. Any damages  that they sustain following  disaster. But it is very  important that you do. So   because it can make a big  difference in whether accounting  gets declared or not. I   remember during Hurricane  Florence we had a bunch of  counties in the up in the PD  and the coast that were declared  and then we got a hold of a  rumor about one business, who  was not putting out a product  anymore, we call them found out.  They have a flooded worse than  125 year, history being in that  location. And their county was  not declared and we were able to  take that information. that end  up helping get their county  declared. So that is very  important because it gives us a  bigger picture of where the  impacts are. Who is hurt? What  the needs are and get the  resources that we could possibly  do to help that community. And  we are participating on the  state recovery task force. I am  still involved with the  long-term recovery of Helene  right now. We are having  executive group meetings. I'm  working group meetings to try  and assist community to recover.  We are sharing continuing to  share the latest information.  Even when we get into recovery,  we have not pushed out any  alerts lately for Halloween, but  we try to make sure that we keep  you guys. Informed of everything  that is going on and you're  always welcome to reach out if  you have any questions and two  of the resources that are  listening on the slide, you're  gonna hear from one of them   Today, there are free resource  to businesses and that is the  small business Development  Center. I'm a big advocate for  them because they can help you.  Not only apply for SBA loans,  or make sure you put your best  bet forward. If you get a  denial or you even you, do get  approved, and you have to figure  out what to do with those fun.  So there to help you  So in summary, you need to be  prepared for the next disaster.  There are resources available  to you at the state and local  level and we were adhered to   help you with any phase. Whether  it's preparedness response or  recovery. Thank you. That's all  I've got.  Thank you. April, other  statistics on, you know,  business closures. They they   are certainly staggering and I  wanted to bring up here. This is  our emergency operations plan  for Colleton County. It's 228  pages long. What is not in here  is each business and how many  employees they have and how  they're going to do payroll  during power outages. And what  they're going to do, if their  supply chain is Disrupted. So,  those are things that have to be  planned at the local level and  certainly with attention to the  things that April mentioned  there. So how do you stay  plugged into our emergency  management initiatives in   Colleton County on routine  basis? Certainly want to  encourage you to join the local  Emergency Planning Committee and  that's our next speaker. Miss  Donna Lamb. She's with  Colleton, County Economic  Alliance and she's the  chairperson of our Le PC. Good  morning.  I'll be the shortest one here  today so y'all know. So up  locally we do have the local  emergency planning committee. We  meet once a quarter it is   usually the  last Wednesday of the third  month we meet right here most  the time it's a 10 am it's about  an hour. It does not take a lot  of time but you get a lot of  good information. We have  different speakers at every  meeting in the past. We've had  us flood.  Contract corporation come in and  talk about a tiger dam. Oh, he's  got 11  o'clock, okay? Um, the Tiger Dam  system that they supply and is  used around the  state for flooding. We've had  CSX come in to talk about the  railroad and things  that they look for in planning  for big emergency. We've done  some hazmat information. We've  also had highway patrol come in  and tell us how they set. Up  and get ready for an emergency.  So really good. Everybody's  invited. We'd love to have you  most time. We have a pretty  small group but we would love to  have anybody that's interested  in attending the more the  better. It's always fun. So um,  And also go back up real quick.  What April was talking about  during the  hurricane. She and I text call  each other. Anytime there's an  emergency. Um, we have a form  that we send out usually within  10 to 12 hours after an  emergency that ask our  businesses industries, you know,  Do you have anything to your  building? Do you have power,  very simple questions, how many  hours were your employees out?  And so forth. It's really  important that I get that  information back because then I  put it in a spreadsheet and send  it to April and that's her  information to give the state  on if they're going to be able  to do a declaration for South  Carolina, or is there one  business that may have  infrastructure issues in? She's  gonna have all your contact to  get somebody here and help you  so that you can  get back open and movement as  soon as you can. So a lot of  times you'll see that form.  Come on. Don't believe that,  please, fill it out, send it  back. If you don't have all the  information, it's okay. We take  what we can get. So, um, but   we'd love to have you, join our  local emergency planning comm  Week. Um we have a good time and  always have very good  information. that you can take  back to your business or you can  use personally. So it's really  good. So I y'all I'd be  shortest.  Thank you daughter. Oh yeah, the  local emergency planning  committee that is if you want  to join, you can email the lepc  at Colletoncounty.org and we'll  get you out into the list. We  also offer that virtually every  time we meet. So if you can't  come in person you can connect  virtually over Google meet and  get the same information as  Donna indicated. You know, the  lepc is federally mandated for  each county to have, for people  to ask questions about hazardous  materials in particular, and  storage, and, and waste, and  that sort of thing. But our   lepc is all hazards as dawn  indicated, so, you can learn  information at lepc meetings  about active shooters, and about  security, and how to better  prepare your business for, for  those sorts of incidents, as  well. So, a lot of really   valuable information there and a  way to stay connected to  emergency management   initiatives and Colleton County,  Next up, we're going to talk  about data, security backups and  offsite access with Mr. Bill  Addison, he's, the director of  the Colleton, County  information, and Technology  Department. but,  so,  Unlike Hurricanes and some  others events.  Data, disasters has no season,  right? We, um, we've all gotten  used to everything your phones  computers. Everything is is  digital online. Now, But not  everything is. has a  Attack associated with it, some  of your data problems could  actually come from. A server  going down, right? so, what I  want you to think about today is  they've mentioned it before  we're having a plan being to be  prepared, but also what do we  do afterwards, right? So why  should cybersecurity matter to  your small business? You're not  like a big corporation, you  know? You you won't probably  hear some of these small stores  being on CNN about a security.  Breach right, well 45% of all  cyber attacks target, small  businesses. That's a lot.  the statistic kind of goes hand  in hand with what April showed  earlier, or The other slide  that was up.  60% of small companies will shut  down with six months to a year  after a cyber attack.  And the average cost of a data  breach is generally in the  120,000 range there again, this  is for small businesses, not so  much for corporations.  So I pulled up to pieces of data  yesterday, as I was getting the  slides together. Just to show  you for the network that we  manage. This is showing  inbound. Email traffic. Only  there's nothing to do with, you  know, websites or anything like  this is just email traffic  coming in and what these Lines  indicate is how much traffic  comes in each day, right? So,   That purple line is the traffic  that we're allowing through.  But if you look down to those  lines running across the bottom,  there's still a large  percentage that is Questionable  and sometimes the server will  block it. Sometimes it'll  quarantine it. um, or may  defer it But this slide shows  the ones that were blocked.   This is just for a month now.   This is each one of those data  points as for a day.  and if you look to the to the  far, right, as a kind of a  bluish line has a triangle look  to it on that particular day,  there was a peak in the amount  of viruses it detected coming  through on On the Via the  email. But these all are  showing.  Blocked emails, not emails. That  made it through. This is all the  bulk of it is spam. We all get  tired of seeing that, right?  Some of it was blocked due to   policy rules. But I just put  that up to show you. How much?  Traffic comes through, trying to  get in, trying to be a problem  to your network.  So everybody likes to go  fishing, right? Well, the kind  of fish and I'm talking about it  and you know, involving a rod   and reel.  but the common ways or the  common data threats to a small  business are gonna to come by  way of things. Like fishing  emails, ransomware attacks.   Business email compromise.   Malware, and viruses. And  unpatched software. All of these  are small pieces, but when they  combined it, it really exposes a  lot of risk, the fishing emails  or something that we all, you  know, if you've ever listened to  the old movies or stories, you  know, vampires can't come in if  unless you're invited man.  Right? The same way some of  these hackers they just trying  to get in your network so   they'll do it with a fishing  email.  They'll create an email that  looks legit. Hoping you'll click  on what it's got and all it  wants to do is just drop off   Some code, doesn't have to do  anything at the moment.  And if you how many y'all used  like chat, gpt ai, anybody.   wait till some of these hackers  really start using AI to write  their emails because it used to  be, you could detect them pretty  easy. Could be poor grammar the  spelling, whatever. Way, do  they start using AI to write  these emails? And we won't be as  easily to detect them. I'm  very proud of the staff at  Colleton, County. They are  really good about when they see  an email come through. That  looks suspicious. They'll shoot  me an email. Hey, this looks  weird. Can you check it and I  do, and a lot of times what I do  is an old school method, I'll  pick up the phone and call   Sometimes it says it's coming  from South Carolina, Fire  Commission, or something and  I'll just calling. Hey, did you  send an email through? Yeah.  Okay, it's fine. but, We  don't always accept every email  that comes through. Ransomware  attacks. I don't know if anybody  knew or our knows. But you know,  there was a time. Some years  ago, where  we, as a colleton county got  were victim of a ransomware type  attack, And those can be  devastating. Those aware. The.  The attacker will. put a piece  of code on the system and it'll  basically hold your system at   As a hostage until you meet  their demands. And you can  either Either pay them or you  can not pay them and Rebuild  from scratch. This is what we  did.  The malware viruses. I'm going  to talk about this a little bit  later as well. The It's very  important. I don't. all  businesses, these days have at  least one computer, you may have  multiple depending on your  size. Make sure you're at the  very least, running an antivirus  software. But you've got to let  it do its updates and that means  you have to pay for a   subscription sometimes. It might  be 60 dollars a year. but  that's a small price to pay,  because if you don't these  hackers are writing new viruses  every day, new new twists. I  mean, the viruses are designed  Let me tell you how smart  they've gotten they'll take a  virus.  You'll get infected with it, but  it'll just lay dormant. It won't  do anything. It just a file on  your system. And what it does  is it lays dormant for six  months.  And what they're hoping to do is  you'll run backups, because  you're so good at doing the  data backups, you'll back up  back up. And every time you  backed up, you're back up the  virus too.  So if I got a virus today and it  acted today, I could roll back  to last week's backup. But not  now they'll laid dormant. And  then, so now it's on all my  backups. So when I rolled load a  backup back in, I'm bringing  the virus right back in.  So they're getting smart. So,  keep your software updated so we  can detect those. those  characteristics of these files.  And then the last one is  Unpatched software.  I don't know how many of you are  using windows. I'm sure  everybody is maybe a few Macs  in here but you know, Windows 10  is is out of date. In this year  as of October. Which, which  what that means to you is, are  you? And I is that Microsoft is  no longer going to be releasing  any security updates for it so  you need to go to Windows 11.  Let your computers do. Their  updates is aggravating  sometimes. But that's the only  way as as these white hat.   Hackers are discovering these.  Coding malicious threats.   they'll, See what they've  exposed a security loophole and  a piece of software. they'll  advise the company they'll patch  it, but you've got to apply the  patch to be protected. So   Well, not just your Windows  operating system on any  software, you might be running  from your vendors from software,  you bought, if it has a patch,  be sure you keep it applied.  So, in order to prepare  ourselves, we need to build a  foundation, right? You need to  point somebody and if you're a  small business it may be you you  may be the IT director and  everything else. But if it's  not that kind of a layout, make  sure somebody takes lead and  doing the IT. Security. Even  if that means you, if you say,  Well, I, I don't feel like I  have the skill sets for that.  There are.  companies, even even local, that  will provide that kind of  support for you. You can  outsource through them, they'll  be a cost involved. But you  don't have to know how to do  everything yourself. You can,  you can hire it out but you  want to create a security plan  or security policy and they'll  help you do that. If it's not  you,  but after you create a policy,  you heard somebody else saying  earlier train train your staff  and then practice it. You got  if you don't practice it, you  don't know. We don't know if  you're playing works.  Where our emails were  inaccessible, it was not a  hacker doing anything. But just  the way emails work across the  Internet, our emails were now as  well as our website. It  exposed a piece of.  Information that we needed to  make sure we have documented  really well.  so no one knowing your critical  areas knowing what to do when an  event happens. Will. Reduce  greatly reduced. You being able  to get back online? It may not  have anything to do with a  flood or being prevented from  getting in your building.  But it may keep you from being  online. A lot of people these  days are have online  businesses. That's how they  function is online. So if you  can't get online and you're  essentially closed, And then  you want to have a response  plan, which is kind of what  we're talking about. What do  you do? Whenever? Something  does happen. so, When it when  when we're preparing for this,  we want to know what the plan  is,  right. Number one. If, if we are  have a, an issue happen, can we  still serve our customers? Are  we able to process payroll or  cut AP checks?  Have we secured the threat to  prevent it from from growing?  Heavy documented somewhere who  you contacts are for service  providers maybe outsourced. It  people have these contact  numbers don't have them on your  computer because your computer  may be inaccessible which is  kind of what the problem with  us yesterday was, they were  saying, Okay, we're sending you  an email to  I can't get email, you know,  that's kind of a catch 22. Don't  let that be my only response.  Do you do you know where all  your administrative passwords  are to your computer systems   There again, if it's one  computer, that's one thing. But  if you have a business, maybe  have multiple outlets, maybe  have a small network, Do you  know what? He's administrative  logins are to get to get you  access to these pieces of the  puzzle. Do you know where all  your settings are stored? You  know, if you've had to create  certain settings for a file  locations, do you have those  documented somewhere? They  should be part of your plan.  Do you know where your backups  are, how old they are? And more  importantly, have you tested  them to know if they'll even  work? I mean, how do you do you  random? Do you randomly test  your backups and do you know how  to load them back in?  and then also do you have a  backup location, identified so  that you can operate and  depending on your business, I  may or may not be an issue. For  colleton, we have an off-site  data center. That should our  primary servers, go down.  We can flip over to our backup  site and and are able to remain  in business. But you want to be  able to take payments, right?  You want to be able to serve   your customers, you know, if it  was In the 40s and 50s, it  would be no problem, you know.  Put the building back up, or   Put the goods out and we still  do business. We don't have to  have these computer.  So some ways you can prevent  this is to does, everybody know  what MFA is or two That's the  kind of code words. You see  these days? multi-factor  authentication or two-factor?   It gets aggravating in your  personal life, you're trying to  log into your bank. Well, we're  gonna send you a code first or  you gotta, you know, do  something else. You can't just  be a password anymore. The idea  is to not only have something,  you know, with something you  own, which would be like, Okay,  I know David's password,  But when I log in as him, that's  gonna send a code to his phone  so I can't get in. so, as to be  something you own something, you  know,  have employee training, you  know, make it quarterly monthly  depending on how your business  is set up.  Talk to them, make sure that  they are understanding the  importance of being  diligent, and opening emails,  not putting software on your  system. Keep your patches  updated. And this. The little  red icon talks, I'll say red,  whatever color that is but it's  talking about antivirus and  something called endpoint  protection, That's kind of  a new buzzword over the past  several years. You'll see  vendors talk about edr, and  EMDR.  Endpoint protection is a little  bit more robust than just  antivirus.  Antivirus is designed to look at  a signature profile pick, you  know, detect that kill it.  Quarantine it, or Things of  that nature. But the end point  detection is a little bit more  advanced It's not only looking  for that but it's also looking  for some trends.  It's looking for your computer,  maybe going out to this website  that you didn't initiate or  did, it's known. So it's using  AI to do some more detection and  then it'll alert you of that.  And you can have rules set up to  say, okay, if you detect so and  so activity. Lock that machine  down to software. We  If your computer does something  that looks suspicious, it it  actually takes it off the  network, it can no longer  transmit traffic across the  network.  And it was funny because we  first put it in it was detecting  our Old antivirus as being a  problem. So everybody was  flagging is We got a problem,  you got a problem and said, it  wasn't that. but then the next  one is in VR, which is a managed  detection and response and  that's When you subscribe to  these services, there's actually  a security operations center to  call them a sock.  That's operating 24/7. That is  also managing and seeing your  network alerts. So if you're in  bed at night and one of these  events happens, And it needs  somebody to look at.  There's somebody on staff that,  you know, you're paying for that  service to to respond to it.   and of course, do our backups  regularly and then when you do  the backup, don't just put the  However, you're back here  whether it's to another drive.  Don't leave it in the same  office next to the computer, you  know, take it home with you to  put in a safe, fireproof safe.  If you have to leave it there,  but don't just leave it right  there with the computer because  it's not going to be as much  good if the building is blown  away or  Or having for bed burn down  having somewhere else. I'll site  Another way you can secure your  your network or your technology,  if you're  using Wi-Fi, make sure they're  not just open, make sure they're  Wpa3 secured with passwords. If  you're a business that you're  going to offer free Wi-Fi to  your customers, Make sure that  was Wi-Fi channels have been set  up on separate networks   separate, logical networks, not  necessary, physical. Using  encryption on any kind of  sensitive data.  When you're using access  controls, always granted with  the least amount of privilege  necessary to do it. If i, if my  job doesn't mean that I need to  have access to Adding software  on the computer and don't give  me access to do that. you're,  you know, your employees or  users, may think you're, you  know, just being You know,  overly cautious or a jerk  whatever. But it's actually  protecting your network. And  that's your job. And this last  one is one that we're all being  guilty of at least in the older  days. Maybe not as much now, but  Not so much pirated. But the  free tool. Everybody goes  online. Where's a free tool to  do? Whatever. And we'll  download it, but that's a great  way for our hacker. Especially  look on your phone. All the  apps that are And every time  you load one, it'll tell you,  Okay? This app needs access to  your your camera, your  microphone. Why? And I'm just  doing something simple. but be  careful, those free tools  because they could be laced with  Code to help steal information.  So we want to respond to an  event. Of course, disconnect  the affected device. If  somebody's, if you get an alert,  to somebody's machine has been  compromised physically, unplug  it from the network.  once you've got it that way, you  want to identify what the threat  was and get rid of it. that may  wind up, meaning that you have  to format the machine depending  on what that threat was. Of  course, restore from a clean  back up. and then if it  depending on the threat and what  is nature was, you may need to  notify customers or law  enforcement potentially and  then, and when it's all said  and done, when the fire's out,  Look back and see what happened.  What went wrong, why? How did  this get through, You know,  what? Peace did we fail at? If  anything? We're not perfect.   Things are going to happen. It's  just we want to be prepared to  deal with them when they do.  Some different examples for  types of businesses, you know.  Retail you can make sure your  POS systems and and your  customer payment data. This  captured and encrypted if it's  hopefully not stored on site.   You know, training staff.   Really the spot suspiciously. I  can't, I can't emphasize enough  how important it is to watch  those emails.  I mean, I got an email just last  week from a security agency  that, you know, another county  had been compromised. One of  their accounts have been   compromised. It it's sent out  some emails. and said Well we  know someone to your your email  service servers so just check  mission, nobody opened them, of  course, I'd ask my users and you  know, nobody had opened them. So  we were good. Like I said, I'm  really proud of the way our  employees. Do they. They're  really good about catching  those funny emails.  If your service company, make  sure you're on customer data  secure. Your appointments  billing information. Especially  if you're a HIPAA related, be  careful with that use  multi-factor authentication on  all of your client facing  systems. And then, of course,  back up. And all your your  sales and your booking systems  all site. This is a slide and  I'll I guess you can watch it  back online and I know David  might be gonna provide the  information after the fact but  here are some links to some  resources that are available.  the one on the bottom that the  lower hyperlink That's a  cybersecurity.  I won't call a division of the  government, but it's a It's a  resource that you can go to. It  is designed a lot for federal.  Or some other tools are free and  they're available to anybody.   and that, that link will take  you to A Cyber Essentials  toolkit. And what it'll do is,  there's a couple of them on   there that will give you some  good information but also  helping analyze, give you a   Not a test, but it'll analyze  your, your current setup based  on what you answer, the  question there and to tell you  where your weaknesses are  Um, there's also some  information there about some MFA  which is Google Authenticator  and duo. The two I mentioned on  the very first bullet, the For  the antivirus, the first one is  malware. Both of those products  are a malwarebytes product.   And as that's a link to their,  Page. It has a pricing. I looked  at it yesterday, both of those  products. The Edr.  For a network of less than 10 or  less. I think you're looking at  under a thousand dollars a  year, so it's not a bad expense.  And it does give you some peace  of mind that somebody's   Watching this network, even when  I'm not.  And course there's some backup  software if you're not already  using some. and then, finally,  Make sure cybersecurity is a  habit. You develop it doesn't  have it.  Conduct reviews. It says Annual,  I don't know that I would stick  with an annual I might want to  do that maybe twice a year.  Build a culture of vigilance  there again. Going back to your  employees, making sure they  are. Staying aware. And there's  also liability insurance that  you can. you can purchase so  you if that's if it's important  to, you may want to look at   Exploring those options as well.  Thank you.  Thank you. Oh you certainly you  know we don't know how much we  rely on computers and Internet  until you can't access it and  you can't use your computer, you  know our firefighter paramedics.  They fill out patient care  reports on the ambulances using  the Internet. Our inventory  systems computer-based to keep  track of all the inventory. We  have these radios that we carry  use a virtual private network  that travels across the Internet  to computer in Columbia and   back in a fraction of the  second. So without the Internet,  without the computers, you  don't really know till it's  gone, but we certainly have a  heavy reliance on that. so  next up we're going to talk  about physical security and  business, reentry with  Detective, Sergeant, Laura,  Rutland, with the Colleton,  County Sheriff's Office,  Running everybody. Thank you  for being here today. My name is  Laura Rutland and I am the  public information officer for  the Colleton, County Sheriff's  Office Yeah.  okay, so as we head into a  season where storms and other  emergencies are more likely to  affect our area, I just want to  take a few minutes to talk  about.  Preparation and not preparation  like you would normally think  of. So I'm just gonna highlight  a few key steps that can make a  huge difference for you, your   your family and your business in  an emergency. So let's start  with something that might seem  small, but is incredibly   important and that's going to be  video recording or photographing  your home or your business.   This step documenting, your  property is one of the most  effective things you can do  before a disaster. It gives you  evidence for insurance claims as  well as being victims of theft.  peace of mind that you've taken  smart steps to prepare yourself  and your business, and your  assets. walk around with your  phone film, everything store  that video in the cloud and you  may even want to consider  emailing it to yourself.  Next secure all your valuables,  especially firearms.   emergencies often mean leaving  in a hurry. And you don't want  to the most important things or  dangerous possessions falling  into the wrong hands. Or  getting damaged. If it's  portable and valuable, please  take it with you. for things  that you have to leave behind,  make sure they're locked up or  hidden  as best as possible because  unfortunately criminals do often  take advantage During a  disaster.  So let's talk about movement  during emergencies. Let's see  what it is. This one, mine.   Okay, so If evacuation is  called, please follow. all road  closures and evacuation routes.  I know it's tempting to take  shortcuts and go back for  something, you forgot. But once  you're out, do not return till  your zone is cleared returning  to early can put you, and our  first responders in danger, and  trust me. If we say, it's not  safe, then it really isn't. If  you do have a business, make  sure you apply for your  business. Re-entry,   certification, and you can do  that. On this website that they  talked about earlier.  I think she said it only takes a  few minutes so it's pretty  simple.  This will help you get back into  your area safely and legally.  Once officials say, it's okay  to return. It's a step that many  business owners overlook, but   it's absolutely essential if you  want to minimize downtime and  losses after an event, But  regardless of having this past,  sometimes we can't let you back  in for safety reasons. I'll  talk about Hurricane Matthew a  little bit. I was working in  Beaufort County during Matthew  And we ran into that a lot where  people were still trying to get  through, because they had  whatever level past, they  thought made them immune to the  road closures and they could  come back, but literally roads  were impassable cell phone  towers were down. We were  operating on satellite phones.  There was nothing to come back  to, so we had to turn away. A  lot of people in angered a lot  of residents, but just rest  assured, we have your best  interests in mind, and if we  say, it's not safe, it's, it's  not safe. So with that said,  stay informed, listen to local  news and pay attention to   emergency officials. If you're  on social media, Follow our  local agencies. The sheriff's  office and fire rescue. We all  have Facebook. We have Twitter,  Instagram. and we post real  time updates that can help you  make smart and safe decisions   for your business.  Finally don't forget our local  resources, shelters and food  banks and community aid  organizations are here for you  and they're prepared to help  whether you need a safe place  to stay or just some extra  supplies. Don't be afraid to  reach out. That's what we're  here for.  In closing preparedness is not  just about surviving and  disaster. It's about being  ready to recover from it by  taking simple steps, like  securing your valuables  recording your property and  staying informed. We can  protect what matters most and  help our community, stay strong  and resilient. Thank you.  Thank you Laura, the reentry  piece that both April. Lord  talked about very important, a  lot of people think they're  gonna, you know, approach a  traffic control point and be  able to talk to the deputy, they  know from the sheriff's office  here, that's going to be  controlling that point, but you  need to remember when there's a  big disaster, we have people  from the upstate that are often  working. Here we have the  National Guard that are working  here, it's very likely there's  somebody operating that traffic  control point you've never met  before and you have no idea who  they are. They have no idea who  you are. So, without the  reentry credentials, you're  likely going to be denied entry  for sure. So next up we're  going to talk about local  planning energy and  infrastructure and recovery  with Captain Casey, Campbell  with the fire rescue department,  Thank you. Chief Green as you  said, I am Captain Casey  Campbell. I'm the public   information officer for  Colleton, County amongst several  other things that we all seem  to do around here. so we're  going to talk about some things,  and this is a graphic that most  of us will have seen before.  And what's really important is  that top black box that  circled in red. Hopefully this  graphic will change this year in  WS is working on a new graphic  that will show inland wind  speeds, which is really  important because if you can  see, this is Hurricane Helene  and we all know that that   didn't come anywhere really  around this. But everybody in  the state was  affected by this, that Red Star  right there is Chimney Rock. And  again, the main reason we want  to point this out is it does say  at the very top of it. This  coming contains the probable  path. And that's one thing that  we really don't like seeing on  these and it's one of our heavy  heavily public message items is  to not focus on that cone or  even the track or all the  spaghetti models that we've that  we typically see when a storm  is coming in. So, again, the  cone contains the probable path  of the storm center but is not  show the size of the storm and,  you know, as we all remember,  back to Helene it covered the  entire state. So whereas that  last graphic didn't really show  it anywhere around us. So  again, that Red Star was Chimney  Rock. This is what it used to  look like and this was after  Helene. So again that was  nowhere along that graphic, and  that's one thing that we   struggle with trying to message  out to people especially the  businesses you know, we need to  get that out. And it's one thing  that we're really hoping is   going to change with the new  graphic, as you'll see more of  those inland wind speeds, that  will be better depicted on a  graphic. So we focus on  something called swift as an  acronym and it stands for Surge  Winds Inland, Flooding and  Tornadoes So again, we're not  focused in on that cone or that  graphic, what we're looking for  is on that last graphic, you  would see, of course, the storm  surge, which was in blue, which  obviously runs along the coast.  So that's one thing we always   want to make sure we're looking  at not just, you know, the the  wind and everything that they  normally, you would associate  with a hurricane so our  evacuation zones, as you've  noticed maybe driving through  the county, you might see some  of these  floating around on some of our  street signs but causing those  three zones A B and C. The only  real confusing part is Edisto  Beach because they leave out of  B into a going Edison and then  you leave Edisto Beach from a  going back to B because that's  Charleston counties. And so  that's a little bit confusing  but Luckily we don't have as  many as kind of the upstate. You  see they have E and F But again  a b and C and we've posted these  throughout the county and each  one of the zones. so when you  come into a zone, you'll see a  sign which is here this b,  you'll see  be and again a and cm and then  when you're in the zone on the  top of the streets, typically  closer up here, you'll see the  little post covers. Um, they   survive last year. Somehow we  were pretty surprised, some  people decided they wanted them  for collectibles, but yeah it's  been a few days fixing those. So  that was good. so, energy and  infrastructure in case you  didn't know, there are three  power providers, in Colleton  County, that's coastal electric.  Excuse Me, Dominion Energy. And  edistoelectric estimated power  outages, that's very hard to   determine. That's again, going  to come in. When we look back at  that swift model as far as the  wind speed trees are down. You  know, obviously trees most of  our power lines are elevated. So  we typically have problems   edistoelectrics up in the upper  western portion of the county,  So I don't have as many clients  so that's not good for them,  right? Because the less  populated areas take longer to  restore those to the power and  you know, depending on if  you're on a high tension line,  you know, obviously you're gonna  get your power much faster. The  infrastructure recovery again,  first push and debris  management. So first push is  something you might also hear  referred to as cut and toss.  That's where they go through  and they literally just try to  clear the roads and throw it on  the shoulders which can cause  problems for us to. Because if  you catch a flat tire or  something, again, there's a lot  of debris that comes down with  this. there's really no, where  to pull off on those affected  areas. That is also coordinated  with South Carolina Department  of Transportation Colleton,  County Public Works, Coastal  Electric in Dominion again.  Those last two are very  important because  coastal cannot touch dominions  lines and dominion cannot touch  coastal lines. Dot will not  clear any roadways that have  power lines involved in any of  the tree debris. So it there's  a lot of coordination that goes  through it and we have an  active. sheet that we use, it's  a Google Sheet and both power  companies and dot along with  Public Works monitor that so we  can start to see those damage  reports. When they come in,  kind of where we need to start  focusing. Some assets, you know,  keep in mind Dominion is a huge  company and they tend to send  resources out of state and they  bring other resources in. So we  might not even have our own   lineman here to maybe from  somewhere else. So it just takes  a lot of coordination and  that's the benefit of having  this room and having everybody  in this room together so that  we can talk and make sure that  everything is being taken care  of, So personal preparedness as  Chief Green show joliter. We  have an EOP for the county.  It's robust, it's big but it  doesn't. It's not tailored to  you as an individual so you  have to make your own plan and  personalize it. If you need to  know your zone, of course.  That's why we have these post  covers just as a simple  reminder, have a plan again,  make it personal for you and  your business and you want to  build a kit. And that's a great  website, they are hurricane.se  that they have all kinds of  information on there and you  should really try to check that  out and that will help you build  your plan and kind of what you  need to keep in your kit.   Follow the evacuation order  because we will again, as  Sergeant Rutland was talking  about when they issue that  hurricane evacuation, and we  think that it's going to be  bad. We do pull our assets off  of Edison Beach so there will be  nobody there to to rescue you,  you know? Again, we may not be  able to get to you, We had some  problems during Ice Storm,  trying to get to Edisto Beach  again. that's because you leave  Colleton, enter in the  Charleston and in her back into  Colleton. Those are different  jurisdictional boundaries so we  have to coordinate with outside  agencies to clear that. So, keep  that in mind, if you have a   business on Edisto Beach, or  Bennett's Point, it's gonna take  a while for us to get to you.  And follow the evacuation route.  Don't use GPS. ways if any of  y'all have ever tried to go  somewhere and there is an  evacuation or they have some  road closures, ways will divert  you off of your primary route to  try to get around it. That's  what we don't want to happen. So  do not use GPS. for to file, an  evacuation around and follow all  the signs. And and there will  be, you know, plenty of signs  out there. There's you know, it  takes we were in a meeting   3,800 officers to to do these  evacuations, but I don't  typically pull the trigger on   that very often but we never  know again. Hurricane.se is a  great resource and code red  messaging that's what we use to  send out emergency alerts during  a storm or before a storm.  or any type of emergency that we  feel the need. The public needs  to be notified and it's free,  it's really easy to do. You can  register everybody in your  household, it goes straight to  your mobile device which we all  know everybody carries. So,  please take advantage of that  free service. That's all.  Thank you, Casey, if you are not  registered for Code Red, please  register today That is how we  get emergency information out to  the public and the information  you register there, you can  register multiple addresses your  work, address, your home  address. You can register  multiple emails, multiple phone  numbers but that's how we push  information out during  emergencies. We don't see your  information that's held by a  third party encrypted system. So  you're you're not In your  phone. Number to the fire rescue  department or the county or  anything. That's a system  that's that's maintained by a  third party and it's encrypted  system. So all we know is when  we push it out, it goes to  everybody that subscribed. So  if you are not subscribed please  do so today. Also, next up we  have Miss Diane Cooper. She's  the deputy director with   consumer and external affairs  with the South Carolina  Department of Insurance.  So, for those of you that are  unfamiliar with the Department  of Insurance, what we do is  regulate the insurance industry  doing business in South  Carolina, that can be  everything from licensing  companies and agents and  adjusters to making sure  companies have plenty of money  on hand to pay claims, but a big  part of what we do involves  consumer education. So we're  really excited to be here today  for this session. so I'll  start by saying that when it  comes to natural disasters of  all kinds being on the rise  it's especially critical the  properly. Prepare your   organization. For how to  respond when these kinds of  events occur so risk.  Assessments are critical to  continuity planning and to  building resilience for your   organization and such a  assessments should be performed  regularly.  So as business owners, most  likely you're already familiar  with the steps used in the risk  assessment process. The first  star identification and  evaluation of the risk. And  then specifically, when it comes  to disaster, risk management you  want to think specifically about  the types of disasters that your  business is vulnerable to and  then plan strategies to protect  employees, your tangible and   intangible assets and the  organizations assets.   Established risk control  measures to reduce  vulnerabilities and mitigate the  risk of natural disasters. So,  examples would include  installing early warning   systems fortification measures  to prevent infrastructure damage  and training employees on what  to do in the event of a natural  disaster. Then you'll want to  monitor and review your risks,  periodically, and make   adjustments where needed.  so when dealing with natural  disasters, you need to have your  plans in place and what you're  going to do both before and  after an event occurs, so  before an event you want to  understand your environmental  risks as we've just talked  about particularly around here.  It's hurricanes, earthquakes and  floods.  Acquire, the relevant insurance  or consider the formation of a  captive insurance company. And  I'll talk about that a little  bit and just a minute.  Prepare a clear, disaster,  response, plan, as April. So a  definitely told us, Make sure  you communicate that plan to all  your stakeholders both internal  and external so that they're  familiar with it in advance.   Keep detailed records of the  organizations activities and  store them in another location  as back up because they'll need  it that claim time. conductor  regular inspections, the  physical infrastructures, and  perform prevented perform  preventative maintenance and  you'll want to keep your   maintenance records because  those two will be important at  claim time. Carry out drills  for various natural disaster  events. Those are always  helpful. We even do that at the  Department of Insurance. so  then, after an event, You want  to assess your damage and  prioritize safety over  everything else. Don't go into  a unto a damaged building until  you're sure that it's safe to  do. So So make whatever  temporary repairs are necessary  to prevent further damage. Then  check on your people because  it's really hard to implement  your disaster. response plan,  if your people are out of  pocket, so that's very  important. Implement your  disaster recovery plan that  you've previously established.  Restore critical operations as  quickly as possible to reduce  the impact on business  continuity. And then report and  document your losses as quickly  as possible. So risk  assessments for natural  disasters, should be  incorporated into your   continuity planning to build  resilience for your business. So  let's talk specifically about  hurricanes for just a minute.  Most recently Hurricane Debbie  We sell 28 billion dollars in  damage in economic loss in the  US. But then our most recent  reports from Hurricane Helene  indicate upwards of 50 billion  dollars in losses for property  owners and unfortunately that  includes somewhere around 30  billion dollars in uninsured,  flood losses.  In South Carolina alone, we saw  over a hundred and eighty  thousand claims in the majority  of those involved trees falling  on roofs.  So, how do you ensure that your  business is adequately  protected? So, if you're going  to transfer risk, As a  business, to an insurance  policy.  There's several must have  policies and coverages that you  want to consider the first is  property insurance. So  commercial property, insurance  protects a company's physical  location.  and any equipment within the  building or on the property. So  you want to make sure that your  current coverage covers wind and  hail damage because some  policies, don't Automatically  cover those perils so they don't  you want to make sure that's   included. secondly, business  interruption insurance, these  policies, cover loss of income  from having to temporarily close  your business after recovered  event. So in the wake of a  hurricane it can cover costs,  like lost revenue, rent and  relocation expenses. General.  Liability. Insurance covers  business, risks. Ranging from  customer  injury to damage to a customer's  property Wallace in your care  and both of these things can  occur after a hurricane  Flood insurance. I know this  area is very prone to flooding  and floods and severe storms  often go together. So if an  organization can secure flood   insurance and can afford it, you  definitely should get it.  I'm contingent business  interruption insurance. If third  parties, third party  partners like vendors or utility  providers. Can't operate  contingent business.   Interruption Insurance can help  cover loss revenue, resulting  from another entities business  interruption  and then specialty policies risk  professionals should review any  policies that an organization  might have in place to cover  specialty equipment. So, these  can include boiler machinery,  coverage, transit, policies,  fine, arts, and third party  coverages. Like general  liability. And pollution  policies.  So, once you're appropriate,  insurance policies are in place,  it's recommended that  businesses evaluate the  following key elements of those  policies to make  sure you understand them.  Clauses and exclusions, take a  very critical approach and  analyze your policies from the  perspective of an adjuster  identify any potential coverage  gaps or surprises that may come  up after a loss occurs.  Valued assets, assess the values  at risk for property damage and  time element exposures and  identify the risk that can  impact property and business  operations is crucial to verify  that existing coverage in place  addresses. These risks with   sufficient limits and  appropriate terms, and then  lastly deductibles review your  policy terms to ensure thorough  understanding of all deductibles  and how they might affect the  net recovery. especially since  natural.  catastrophes typically have  deductibles that are a  percentage of your valued  amount.  so, an alternative to buying  insurance policies is to set up  something called a captive  insurance company.  This is basically a subsidiary  that the business owns that then  protects the assets of the  business South Carolina has been  considered one of the top five  mature captive domiciles in the  Western Hemisphere and since  captive, enabling legislation  was passed back in the year,  2000 we focused on. Developing  the infrastructure resources  and staffing to provide our  captive owners with a robust  and thriving captive  marketplace, The captive  industry continues to grow  in South Carolina and we have  over 230 captive, insurance  companies in place to date. And  we have great diversity in our  industry as well as areas of  We also have professionals here  in the state to help guide the  formation and operation of a  captive. Nine of the world's top  10 captive managers or   domiciled right here in South  Carolina. So if that's something  that you or your business or  interested in, please reach out  to us or contact information is  here, and we can point you in  the right direction to talk to  someone, we also have analysts  on staff Monday, through Friday  8:30. Am to five if anybody  businesses have questions about  their insurance or need help  locating insurance, we'd be  happy to help with that as  well.  thank you, Miss Diane, one of  the things we struggle to  message before and after  a storm, is what what assistance  is available to the public after  a disaster?  So FEMA has two assistance  programs roughly for  individuals, Small Business   Administration, loans and  individual assistants grants.  The grants are don't have to be  repaid, but a lot of people  think that FEMA is going to make  them  whole. And that is a  misconception. The maximum  amount that a person can can get  from a FEMA, a grant this year,  this fiscal year's 42,500. Now,  if you're home has been  completely destroyed, that's not  going to make you whole, you're  not gonna be able to build a  new home for 42,500, but I have  a statistic here from  Hurricane Helene. There were  447,000 500 roughly individual  assistants applications.  Anybody want to take a guess at  how many got the maximum award  out of the 447,000. 56.  56 out of 447,000, got the  maximum IU or so. We often  message that it's less than 1%  that get that maximum award. We  should probably message it as  less than  0.001 percent. It's a very, very  small amount as a result  insurance. If you're a citizen  in Colleton, County, if you're a  business or an industry, in  Colleton, County Insurance  remains your best line of  defense against a loss. And  please, please do remember that  and take those those things into  consideration for sure.  All right, so next up, we have  Mr. Paul Feathering. Gill with  the SC small Business  Development Center and he's  going to talk about his agency  and small Business  Administration loans. Thank.  You very much.  again, my name is Paul  featheringle, I'm with the South  Carolina Small Business  Development Center and there's a  couple of things that I want to  do briefly this morning. Number  one, I want to give you an  overview of just a little bit  of who we are and what some of  the services are that we can  offer. And then the second  thing I want to do is to focus  specifically on the disaster  preparedness space and how we  are able to assist businesses  and preparing for that.  So just to tell you a little bit  about who we are, spdcs are  actually nationwide. We have 63  programs. We have about a  thousand centers across the   United States.  we have 20 centers across South  Carolina. The primary thing we  do is offer individual no cost,  confidential business  consulting, we do that for   startup and existing businesses.  So any stage of business, any  type of business, we have over  50, highly trained and  experience, consultants around  the state of South Carolina  that can help you. And we do  operate under SBA and National  accreditation standards. So we  are a resource partner of the  SBA, the small Business  Administration and we are  accredited by them. So as I  mentioned, we do individual no  cost consulting. We also offer  workshops and trainings you can  go  on our website which I have  available as part of this  presentation, scpdc.com and you  can see recorded training events  that we've done recently that  you can watch it your leisure  can also see ones that we have  coming up that you can register  for the majority  of what we do right now is  online through zoom and teams.  We also do referrals to  resource partners. So if you  need an attorney or an  accountant or a marketing  person, or a website person or  any of those kinds of services  that we don't specifically  offer, we can refer you to  resources that we work with or  that our  clients work with that do. So  just briefly some of the  services that we can assist  with business plann.  Business Structure and  Organization. As I mentioned,  referral the resources   financial management, putting  financials together and then  finding sources of capital, as  you need them, be those loans or  other things, we can assist you  with putting applications  together with marketing plans,  with website development,  social media, strategic planning  sales and grow strategy. Pretty  much any kind of Function or  service that your business would  need. We can provide some   assistance in that area. We also  have a number of specialty  services that we offer. So if  you're looking to get  certification for example, as a  minority woman or veteran  business, procurement government  contracting, we do have   international trade specialists.  A lot of people don't think  about that as an option for  small businesses, but it really  is sometimes a really good  option for  them. We have manufacturing  specialists agribusiness, cyber  security, and then product and  technology. Commercialization.  So, if you develop a new  technology, a new product, and  you're looking to protect the  intellectual property and take  it to market, there are  resources out there to do that  and that's something that we   can assist with. Now.   specifically related to how we  can help small businesses in in  preparing for and in responding  to emergency situations into  disaster. So you've heard  several people today, mention  to you the importance of having  a preparedness plan, right? Of  having some kind of emergency  plan for your business. So that,  you know, What to do in the  event of an emergency and you  don't have to make a whole   bunch of really important  decisions, really quickly in the  event that something's about to  happen. And so, one of the  things that we can help you do  is we can help you put one of  those together. continually  review, it continually update it  and have it ready to implement  and the event that you need to.  Because remember, there's many,  many different types of  emergencies and they can happen  at any time at any place, right?  I mean, we think naturally in  this area about hurricanes and  about floods and about things   like that. But, you know, we got  a great presentation on cyber  threats to businesses. And  that's something that I was just  in a meeting about yesterday.   So, so there are those kinds of  things, right? There's there's  numbers of different kinds of  things. A fire and your your  location and interruption to   one of your suppliers. There's a  number of different things that  that can happen. So it's  important for you as the  business owner and we can help  you to do this to identify.  What are the the risks to my  business and what are the  strategies  that I need to have to be able  to meet those in an emergency?  And really it's for us helping  businesses understand that they  have to prepare themselves  through proper planning because  You know, when when the  hurricanes 48 hours away, it's a  little bit too late at that  point, right? I mean you want to  have things in place, no  different than what you do with  your personal planning, for how  to meet a disaster situation.   So what kinds of things do you?  Do you want to have in your  plan, have some kind of team  have somebody that's in charge  of helping you implement  different things, related to  this plan. And you know, we work  primarily with small businesses  so that might be you as we've  said before, but but have an  idea of who's gonna be the  leader of the group to do this,  we just heard about insurance,  right? And for businesses  insurance is one of the most it  terrifies me when I meet with a  small business and they say, I  don't have any insurance so the  first thing we do is get them in  a position to start to get  insurance so understand what  your insurance coverage is and  what you need to have based on  the kinds of threats that you  have. You know, my office is in  Charleston. So there, and in  this area, of course,  hurricanes, floods things like  that, other areas, it's going  to be different things, so know  what you need to have. quick  note on on cyber insurance. You  mentioned that we were talking a  little bit about that  yesterday. Great thing to have  for a business, but the one  thing to keep in mind about  that is you have protocols,  then in terms of backups and  things like that, that you have  to follow or because when you  make a claim against that  insurance, they're going to go  back and look, and they're gonna  look at your system and see if  you did everything. You were  supposed to do and if you  didn't, they'll deny the claim  Am I right on that? Right? Yeah,  so, so you want to make sure  that's the other part of it.  You want to make sure from an  insurance perspective that you  know what, all the requirements  are and all the things that you  have to to do to make sure that  you're putting yourself in a  good position. What's your vote?  What are your vulnerabilities?  Is it your location? Is it, your  suppliers? Is it, you know, the  way you communicate with your  customers to identify what those  are? so that, you know, what,  kind of things you need to do to  be able to, to deal with those  and then what's the probability  of an incident happened? You  know, how  likely are you to, to face a  particular kind of of emergency  and then look at your team, you  know who's on your team and what  impacts are they gonna have?  Because, you know, another  thing we've been talking about  is reentry and access and being  able to get back in. Well, you  know, if, if your team can't get  back then you know you have to  be able to prepare to work  around that and they're going to  have to  deal with their own personal  situations as well as their  responding to the disaster. So  this is a section of your plan  that you need to consider in  addition to making sure you  communicate it with your team.  You want to make sure that you  incorporate, you know, how are  we going to bring our staff back  and  Them to recover as well, so that  they can then come back to to  the business. So, I talked  about the team, I talked about  the team leader. We've talked  about communications. That's  vital don't, just do this plan,  We say this about all kinds of  plants, don't just do it and put  it in a drawer and forget about  it. and let it gather dust.   Make sure everybody knows you  have it. Make sure everybody  knows where it is and make sure  that everybody knows what it  says. In fact, you might want to  have as part of your onboarding  process when you bring on new  employees and you give them a  whole bunch of stuff to look at  and read to understand what your  business is about and what you  want them to do, have this be a  part of it so that they  know how to how to do these  things. You probably want to  back it up digitally but you  probably also want to have some  hard copies of them because you  know, in the event of a power  outage or something like that,  you're not necessarily going to  be able to access it if it's  only digital. So you want to  have it someplace where you can  get it. And I know some of you  are probably thinking this  sounds really really hard. We  don't know how to put all this  stuff together. You're right.  It can be kind of complicated  but we're here to help with that  and we actually have templates  and outlines for how to put a  plan together and we're   actually working on a digital  sort of format or program.  That'll help you do that so  that we can help you put the  pieces of those. Those that  plan together. And so you know,  from a life, safety perspective  these are just some of the   things you want to address.  Think about what you're where  you're located. What's your  evacuation procedures are going  to look like Who's going to be  responsible for when to  determine that we're going to  shut down. We're going to  evacuate We're gonna of course  if there's an order that comes  from from the local authorities,  you have to follow that. But  sometimes even before that, it  makes sense to to jump on this  and then, you know, are you  gonna have an assembly area  where everybody's gonna get  together? So you can determine  what next steps  steps are and and what you need  to do, make sure your employees  are accounted for Figure out  what how you're going to manage  your equipment are people, you  know, things like computers  things like, You know, stuff you  can carry right equipment,  important paperwork, things like  that are different employees  going to take different things  with them and have them to bring  back. So just think  about what that's gonna look  like as part of this plan.   Thinking, from a property  protection, we talked about  insurance, we talked about  security systems, I love the  idea of taking photographs of  all of your equipment and all   of that kind of stuff and have  that available. The other thing  I would suggest from a small   business perspective, is your  inventory, any kind of inventory  that you have at the time that  you're leaving, make sure that  you document that as well.  Because after the disaster, you  can go back and you can make a  claim. on your insurance, for  lost inventory, but you have to  be able to document what you  have. So in addition to your  equipment, your computers, all  that kind of thing, make sure  you're documenting your  equipment as well. Make sure  you're protecting your data  that you've got back up. That  you've got cybersecurity that  you've got all these things.  And, and I would suggest having  multiple places where you back  things up and multiple points of  access, so that you can get to  it and start to access your  data to start your business  again. And then, think about  what your facility shut down  process is going to be, you're  gonna board up the windows.  You're gonna wrap stuff in  plastic, you know, what are you  gonna do? You gonna get stuff  up off the floor, where it might  flood? These are all things  that you want to think about in  terms of, okay? If if we're  gonna leave the the business  and we're gonna evacuate for a  period of time or we're gonna  shelter in place. What kinds of  shutdown procedures? Do I have  to have to make sure I do do  that properly and have a  checklist to do that and who's  responsible for? what make sure  again that you're protecting  your records, I am not a fan of  having a whole bunch of paper  records about things anymore. I  think it's better to, to back  things up digitally, and make  sure you're securing it. But if  you do have paper records and  files, make sure that you're you  have a plan in place for how to  secure those in the event that  you're building is in danger or  you need to evacuate, Have  copies of tax returns. Have  copies of your insurance  policies. Have copies of all of  these things, so that or backups  of all of these things. So that  you can access them if you need  to. And then, as part of the  plan, you want to make sure you  address recovery and  restoration. We talked about  registering for reentry, make  sure that you do that. So that,  you know, when you when you're  able to come back, any kinds of  you know they mentioned the the  Code Red Service or you know,  in your area, any kinds of  services like that that they  have to share information with  you about evacuations about  return about reentry about any  of that stuff. Make sure that  you share that or make sure that  you sign up for those things,  so that you can share that  information with yourself and  with your, with your team. You  know, what happened, what you're  gonna do if if the building is  just try, Right? This is  something to think about, you  know, what if you're building is  flooded or catches fire or  something needs to happen and  there's a period of time,  before you can return. Can you  operate your business in a  strictly remote fashion? Now,  you know, a lot of us because of  this pandemic that we had   recently, you know, we learned  how to do things remotely and  but you know, some businesses  are better at that than others.  So you know think about in the  event that I can't get back  into the space that I'm in right  now. What does that look  like for my business? And how my  my operations are going to  continue? so,  Having a cash reserve thinking  about having a cash reserve for  your business. And I know,  especially newer, especially  smaller, businesses are saying,  Cash reserve was, you know, but  that's one of the things we can  help you plan for is how to  have a cash reserve so that you  can continue Operations, for a  period of time if you need to  after the disaster to pay   employees, to get inventory to  do some things like that. Up, to  the point where you start to  return to more normal operations  and think about your employee   support, think about the fact  that your employees, your team  are going to be dealing with  things themselves. And so  they're going to need time off  potentially, they're gonna have  to deal with their own  individual situations. So be  thinking about making those  kinds of arrangements as well.  Make sure that you've got good  agreements with your suppliers.  Your inventory is documented. I  mentioned that Now. So so  Putting together. The plan is a  big part of it. Oh, and I  mentioned here. if you have a  lot of equipment, things like  truck things like, trucks,  trailers different things like  that. Make sure you photograph  and document all that. move it.  If you can away from an area  where it's going to be impacted,  but if you can't, at least  document it and try to develop  some kind of Communication  system that you can, you know,  get in touch with people and the  event that it takes some time  for power to come back or  anything like that. another  thing that we can help with, in  addition to putting this plan  together  is We can help you with  resources after work. After the  disaster. Specifically is  it relates to SBA. So, as I  mentioned, we're resource  partner of SBA. They do offer  disaster assistance in financing  in the event of a disaster. A  lot of you have probably heard  of what are called economic  injury disaster, loans. We heard  about those in a lot of  situations in relation to covid.  They have those for  all kinds of disasters, right?  But there is an application  process involved. And that's  where this planning and this  documentation becomes so  important because they're gonna  ask you for things like copies  of your tax returns copies of  your bank statements and  information about your business,  copy of your business license.  They're gonna ask you for all of  these things to be able to apply  for that kind of assistance. We  can help you do that, but part  of that is the planning on the  front end to make sure that  you're maintaining all of the  data and Nation that you need  to be able to put together that  information afterwards. I  mean, we I started at this job  in October of 2020. So right in  the middle of covid. And when I  first came in there was the  state had a program where small  businesses could apply for. I  think it was  $20,000 or $25,000 in that, it  was a grant for assistance. So I  took like 500 calls. The first  week I was on the job dealing  with this grant and the thing is  what I found out and it was kind  of scary. It was the number of  businesses who didn't have a  business license didn't have  insurance hadn't filed, their  taxes, they didn't have access  to any of that stuff. So let us  help you as part of this  planning process, get all that  stuff together. So that in the  event that something like this  happens, you're prepared. And  then here's our, here's our  website. You can come here to  sign up to request counseling.  As I mentioned, we're statewide.  So any place in the state we've  got somebody to help you. All  of our services are no cost and  and confidential. Thank you  April for for having us here.  Thank you, all. That's a very a  lot of resources. Sounds like  you have available to assist  our our local businesses. All  right, so we'll look online. See  if we have any questions here or  any questions in the room.  While we're checking the chat on  YouTube and Looking at the  question you can submit  questions if you're live at  Colleton, Are there any  questions with anybody in the  room?  so, it's not  Um, what is the difference? I  suppose between WITNESSICAL  personnel, but we  cannot wait physically. And I'm  just not gonna follow  information because I have   disability.  the top three guys and say,  Certainly my employees. I'm  gonna say, you guys go to take  care of yourself. But as the  business owner, I have to  protect my commodities. And I'm  not sure how to do that safely  and legally in the events of  well, that is a very good  question and if you couldn't  hear it online, a farm in  Colleton, County, where is it  located? Roughly zone. It Okay,  so you're you're probably not in  an evacuation zone at all. So  you probably wouldn't receive an  evacuation order, but the  question certainly needs  to be answered, if you're  located in an evacuation zone,  and there is no voluntary  versus mandatory evacuations  anymore. When the governor  orders an  evacuation, it is mandatory with  that said We don't come and  throw a black hood over you and  throw you into van and take you  out, You know, right? You you're  not we're not gonna kidnapping  or anything like that but we  want you to evacuate. because  of, for safety reasons, as  Captain Campbell mentioned, you  may live on Edisto and you may  ignore the evacuation order and  your house may survive and you  may have very limited damage.   That's all well and good. You  still need to understand that  we're not. There we moved our  assets because that zone was  ordered to evacuate if you're  outside and you're picking up  sticks after the storm and you  have a heart attack. Our   closest ambulance may be 18  hours away. I have no idea.  However, long it takes  us to cut our way down to where  you are on Edison. That's why we  want people to to follow the  evacuation. If you're if you're  in a business and I certainly   understand what you're saying  the difference between mission  critical personnel And the  folks that you would say, Hey,  you know, go go take care of  things. that brings up a good  point. providing them time to  make sure that they have time to  make. Arrangements at their  Homes, The issues that Beaufort  runs into all the time is an  evacuation order. That doesn't  take effect at 8 o'clock in the  morning. If it takes effect at  noon, those folks leave and they  go to work in Savannah. And   then when the evacuation order  occurs, they can't really get  off of work in Savannah, until  the evacuation order takes  effect, but then they can't get  back because everybody's  leaving, Buford they're trying  to get back to their home if  you've so keep in that, in mind  is important as well for your  employees either Providing them  time to make arrangements for  their homes ahead of time, or as  you said, you know, allowing a  time frame before the storm  arrives and typically, they're  the governor takes that into  account, you know, evacuation  orders or are usually a couple  of days before landfalls. So  there is some time to make some  preparations there locally. Did  I answer your question? So  Mount Carmel. Road is none of  that is in any evacuation zone  Zone. C starts  just south of Walterboro and  runs to where the CSX Railway is  Zone. B is below that. And then  Zone, A is either across the  brickyard, bridge going to   Bennett's Point or all of Edisto  Island. Yeah. Sure. You have  to come up here, though. Sorry.  And you can answer this  question, too. For the person  who put it in. Actually, he can  answer that question. oh,  Culture um inside the state  emergency operations that are  even though ESF 24 covers any  company or any business that is  for profit in South Carolina, we  serve you guys. There is a  function. It's ESF Eva. Excuse  me, it is ESF 17, they cover  animals and agriculture. And so  like sometimes I'll get the  question sometimes though the  questions and we have no problem  walking in between each other.  and connecting. And also, they  are a part of ESF 24 because of  that reason,  So I will make sure you in the  room that I get your contact  information that way you have  that but to those who are on the  live stream, there is a function  dedicated, you can call the main  line for EMD during a disaster,  and they will  make sure that you get directed  to the ESF 17 room to get  support as a farm or a   neighborhood business. So, let  me make sure you have the number  here to the OC as well before  you leave. So if you have any  issues or anything, we can make  sure you're taking care of. the  question came in is what is  considered a small business, the  employee count to qualify for  Sbdc support. Sure. And and my  apologies, I should have added  that somewhere in in my slides.  So we followed the sba's  definition of small business  and it's a pretty expansive  definition. So essentially it's  500 employees or less and  depending on your next code,  meaning the kind of industry or  business that you're in. It's up  to 10 million in revenue or  less. So pretty. Expansive, you  know, I would say most of the  businesses that we work with or  somewhere in the 10 15, 20 25  employee range. But yeah, we can  go all the way up to 500.   like, Are there any other  questions you see on the chat?  That was the only one I see that  came in here.  Okay, well, I want to thank all  of the presenters. Again, for  being here, we certainly  provided a lot of information to  you. If you are watching this  later on, you're not watching  it live. You're watching the  recording of it and you have a  question. You certainly can  direct that to the Emergency  Operations center. The phone  number there is eight four,  three five, four nine five, six,  three, two, or you can email  lapc at colletoncounty.org. You  want to join the You can email  that as well. We'll add you to  the email distribution list, but  you can certainly submit any  questions to that email, and we  will get back to you. All  right, with that, I want to  thank everybody for attending.  Thank you again to the  presenter. Some of you came  quite a distance to be here and  we really appreciate it, and  thank you for watching."}]