Multi-Agency Emergency Drill Set for USC Salkehatchie Walterboro Campus Friday

Colleton County Fire-Rescue, the Colleton County Sheriff's Office, and the Walterboro Police Department converged on USC Salkehatchie's Walterboro campus Friday morning for a four-hour, large-scale emergency training exercise that put interagency coordination under simulated pressure from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

USC Salkehatchie officials and additional state and local partners joined the three lead agencies, producing one of the more comprehensive multi-jurisdiction exercises the Lowcountry campus has hosted. Emergency vehicles, equipment, and personnel filled the campus and spread onto adjacent public roads throughout the drill window.

Officials deliberately scheduled the exercise on a university holiday, keeping students off campus entirely. That decision removed any risk of confusion between training activity and a real emergency and gave first responders unobstructed access to the full campus footprint.

Responders worked through scenarios centered on active-shooter situations, mass-casualty events, and large-scale medical emergencies. The training stress-tested communications systems, victim triage workflows, patient transport procedures, and interagency incident command structures, all under conditions designed to mimic the complexity of an actual large-scale incident.

Hampton Street and nearby roads around the campus experienced slowed or rerouted traffic as officers on scene managed the staging and movement of emergency vehicles throughout the morning. Drivers who encountered the visible emergency presence were directed to follow guidance from those officers rather than call 911 to report activity.

For the agencies involved, the exercise served as a live audit: identifying communication gaps between jurisdictions, evaluating whether staging and traffic control plans hold under operational stress, and refining mutual aid protocols with partner EMS teams and hospitals. USC Salkehatchie draws students from multiple Lowcountry counties, and any real incident at the Walterboro campus would demand exactly the kind of coordinated, cross-jurisdictional response Friday's drill was built to rehearse.