SC leaders have introduced a new Strategic Statewide Resilience + Risk Reduction Plan, a comprehensive effort to protect the state and residents from extreme weather — like heatwaves and flooding.

The 744-page plan, compiled over two years, was developed out of the state’s first resilience plan created in 2019. Today's plan includes:

A recommendations summary
History + data collection of past events
Guidance for delegation of funds
Land planning
Climate trends
Hazard assessments
and more

How this impacts Columbia

If you remember, several local areas participated in a national urban heat island mapping initiative called HeatWatch. The results gave the state detailed maps of heat islands + valuable data collection that help us understand heat vulnerability. Read the report.

Part of the plan includes a reference to the severe flooding event that occurred in 2015, specifically, the breach that caused significant damage to the canal and affected the water supply for ~400,000 people. The City of Columbia, Columbia Water, and FEMA have collaborated on repairs, and construction for the repairs began last year.

Let's talk money

In the executive fiscal year 2023-2024 budget for the state of SC, the Office of Resilience suggests increasing the fund balance to $100 million, with a recurring appropriation of $20 million. On pages 22 + 23, it references several disasters (think: the 2015 Flood, 2016's Hurricane Matthew, and 2018's Hurricane Florence.)

The Executive Budget provides the necessary $20 million funding every year to make sure the agency has enough money for major disasters and to support its efforts to minimize the impact of such events, as outlined in the new Resilience Plan.

Additionally, the Executive Budget proposed an extra $200 million from ARPA funds for initiatives.

Familiarize yourself with the new plan and read more about its local + statewide impacts.