Some Observations on Organizational Response To The Snowstorm in Columbia, South Carolina, February 9, 1973

Around February 10, 1973, press reports indicated that a largely unexpected and very heavy snowstorm hit large sections of the southern United States, an area unaccustomed to such an event. Statements by various officials and requests for a \nfederal declaration of a disaster suggested that some localities had experienced a severe emergency and a crisis because of the heavy snow. On the basis of these and other reports, the Disaster Research Center sent a three-man research team to Columbia, South Carolina. The team stayed three days, from February 26 through February 28, concentrating on storm-associated activities around the state capital of Columbia, and attempting to get answers to three questions: \n(1) If a disaster had occurred, in what way and bow was the community response coordinated \n(2) What role did the local civil defense organization play in the coordination and other storm-associated organizational responses; and, \n(3) To what extent would it be possible in such a kind of situation to assemble documentary data, especially organizational Logs, by which we could reconstruct the sequence of organizational events and actions happening before, during and after a community emergency?