The storm’s initial onslaught began at approximately 2:30 p.m. on June 21, 2017. The heavy rains continued until approximately 3:00 a.m. on June 22. The county’s warning system, established to alert sleeping citizens in the rural areas between Central and Capital Cities, proved totally inadequate. Virtually all deaths occurred as a result of failure of Liberty County Emergency Management to initiate timely warnings and to implement evacuation of the low-lying areas between Central and Capital Cities.

Evacuated residents were placed in school systems in Liberty County and Pony, and in Danton, Clifton, Jamestown, and counties surrounding Wicks. There were no procedures established for evacuating and sheltering residents; this led to confusion. The following shortcomings were noted:

• Evacuation traffic control procedures were not coordinated among State police, county sheriff, and local law enforcement officials. This resulted in a traffic gridlock that delayed evacuation.
• Red Cross was not tasked to operate the opened shelters. The management of each shelter directly depended on the management skills of the school system. There was no previous training of school system personnel on shelter operation. In addition, there were no written materials available on shelter operation.
• Shelter management was marginal, at best, and there was no registration and systematic processing of evacuees. This was believed to be the underlying cause for the rumors that developed on June 21, stating that Hurricane Edward caused hundreds of deaths. These rumors resulted in hours of anxiety for relatives and close friends of the evacuees.
• Private-sector resources were not effectively used. Many private-sector resources useful in the response and recovery activities were immediately available but were left unused because of lack of previous coordination.
• The Liberty County commercial telephone facility at the intersection of H & 5th Streets was damaged as were many of the telephone lines. Without telephones, Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service (RACES) communication was used to transmit critical information. There was no prior effort to organize RACES personnel and to incorporate their systems and capabilities into the emergency plan.
• The county did not have a communication plan that integrated the fire service, law enforcement, and emergency medical service personnel into the overall communication plan.

Mary Smith was appointed by the Board of Supervisors as the new emergency program manager, replacing the director of emergency management.

The Board of Supervisors specifically directed Ms. Smith to implement integrated emergency management concepts. Every attempt should be made to integrate all response agencies into the emergency planning process. The directive stated that improved, well coordinated prevention, protection, response, recovery and mitigation measures were to be emphasized and that the new Department of Emergency Management was to work closely with the Planning Board, as well as with other county and city departments. In addition, private- sector resources were to be integrated into the planning.

Ms. Smith’s first steps in initiating the Board of Supervisors’ directive were to develop a comprehensive HVA for Liberty County, revise the Liberty County Basic Emergency Plan, complete a resource listing, and hold stakeholder meetings.