Before the Storm - A Shelter Workshop

Before the Storm — Winter Sheltering Readiness Workshop June 11, 2026 | SC Upstate

A major ice event in the Upstate isn't one problem — it's every problem at once. Roads close. Power stays out for days. Generators run hot or run dry. Power-dependent residents at home become unreachable. Nursing homes call asking where they can move patients, and the hospitals are already absorbing the cold-exposure surge. The plans exist. The shelter tiers exist. What has never been fully tested is the coordination across them when the lines come down and nobody can drive.

Join County Emergency Management, SC DPH/ESF-8, ESF-6/Red Cross, hospitals, nursing homes, ALFs, home health, dialysis centers, MEPS operators, EMS, utility liaisons, and VOAD partners for a half-day planning workshop built around a major Upstate winter storm scenario. Three segments — pre-storm, peak impact, and sustained outage — walk the full sheltering continuum from warming centers through…