Mount Pleasant Magazine Sept/Oct 2020

18 www.ReadMPM.com | www.MountPleasantMagazine.com | www.VOICEforMP.com in our Emergency Operations Center at Town Hall. Staff members were present from SCDHEC and MUSC, as well as the local school district, hospitals and most assisted living facilities. Toward the end of the meeting, I was struggling for a frame of reference. There were no cases in our community yet, and I wanted to grasp the potential magnitude of the virus’ threat. So I asked, “To put this in perspective, how many deaths have been attributed to the common flu this season?” Like most laymen in the early stages, I assumed coronavirus was much like the flu, but somehow more nuanced. I quickly learned otherwise. In times of chaos and confusion, having clear, established priorities makes up the navigation chart that keeps the town on course. For COVID-19, the town’s operational objectives have been to maintain continuity of critical services, such as fire, police and sanitation; to reduce risk of exposure to essential town personnel; to protect critical healthcare infrastructure; and to reduce risk of exposure to our citizens. Under the capable direction of our town administrator, Eric DeMoura, Mount Pleasant has professionalized our emergency preparedness and operations in a magnificent way. Our emergency coordinator, Amanda Knight, has taken us to a new level. This team proved highly effective in the well-known “Bridgemageddon” incident of 2018, when one of the bridges on I-526 failed without warning. In mid-March, I began keeping a handwritten record of all my activities as mayor. There were teleconferences late at night, phone calls with decision-makers in the public and private realms and medical briefings from health care professionals. It was just so much to keep straight, and I knew I would need notes for reference. Our daily staff teleconference on March 13 revealed that 12 states had declared a state of emergency. At 3 p.m. that day, there was a teleconference to decide whether to hold the Cooper River Bridge Run. This annual event involves over 40,000 participants, the municipalities of Charleston, North Charleston and Mount Pleasant, as well as the largest mobilization of law enforcement in the state. On the call were County Council Chairman Elliott Summey, Charleston Mayor John Tecklenburg, North Charleston Mayor Keith Summey and members of the bridge run committee, including Helen Hill, CEO of the Charleston CVB. I already knew that Mayor Tecklenburg and I shared the same concerns. Though race participants and enthusiasts might be comfortable risking exposure, it was an unacceptable risk for our first responders and public service workers, especially considering how many states and countries the participants represented. The initial teleconference ended with the group thinking we could delay the decision for a while. Soon enough, a unanimous decision was made to reschedule the Bridge Run for August. But that too would eventually change. The most demanding and active day for me by far was March 31 — the day I issued a stay-at-home order. Though all of my conversations with health care leaders, emergency planners and fellow elected officials indicated a “go,” I did not sleep the night before issuing it. But as I said in the press conference announcing the order, the majority of Town Council members had individually expressed either outright consent or at least no intention of feature Mayor Haynie holds a joint COVID press conference with the City of Charleston.