The role and responsibility of the Cherokee County Emergency Management Agency is to plan and prepare, respond to, mitigate, and recover from all emergencies, hazards and disasters both natural or man-made, within Cherokee County. As the EMA Director and Emergency Manager for Cherokee County I can honestly say a lot was thrown at Cherokee County over the past two days. Two to eight inches of snow fell during an eight to ten hour period Friday.

We were only forecasted to receive one to two inches. The Cherokee County Highway Department, Municipal Street Departments and Cherokee Electric crews never slowed down. The county highway and municipal street departments were out all day Friday making sure the roads remained in the best condition possible. Cherokee Electric crews have been running non stop for two days both day and night, to make sure your power stayed on, or was restored as quickly as possible. The Cherokee County Law Enforcement community, Cherokee County Rescue Squad, Cherokee EMS, and the Cherokee County Fire Service stood ready to respond to any need or request from the citizens of this county. I want to commend all of you. It means a lot to know when the time comes we have the most dedicated and capable responders ready to respond no matter what the conditions may be.

I also want to commend Cherokee County Superintendent of Education Mitchell Guice for his dedication and commitment to the safety of all the children within the Cherokee County school system. Many school systems across the state were found scrambling Friday morning after school kids arrived at school, only to turn around and have to put children back on buses or arrange for other means of transportation to get them back home safely. Mr. Guice, Probate Judge/Commission Chairman Tim Burgess, and myself were in constant communications all day Thursday and early Friday morning. I wanted to make sure Mr. Guice and Mr. Burgess had the most current and accurate information so they could make the most well informed decisions possible.

Cherokee County experienced very little problems throughout the day yesterday and last night. This is only achieved when the public is well informed and everyone plans, prepares, and works together.

The information was provided to the citizens via the media outlets and the Cherokee County EMA facebook page. As a whole everything went well so job well done by all and thank you!