Brandon Ellis, Georgetown County Emergency Services Director, was named Director of the Year at the 2024 S.C. Emergency Management Association’s annual conference last month.
The Director of the Year award is given annually to a county emergency management director for outstanding service in emergency management. Georgetown County’s Emergency Management Division falls within Emergency Services and Ellis serves dual roles as Emergency Services Director and Emergency Manager. To be eligible for this award, a candidate must be the director of a county emergency management organization in South Carolina and have demonstrated leadership qualities that enhance the emergency management capabilities of their community. Nominations are reviewed by the association’s nominating committee and awards are given during the annual awards banquet.
Under Ellis’ leadership, Georgetown County Emergency Management was named Agency of the Year at last year's SCEMA conference.
With nearly 15 years of emergency management experience at the local and state levels, Ellis has responded to eight federally declared disasters and countless emergency incidents in South Carolina.
In 2023, he coordinated with local and state officials to revise the hurricane evacuation zones in Georgetown County as a part of the South Carolina Hurricane Evacuation Study update. The new zones are intended to allow for a more efficient and effective evacuation process, while using a most likely worst-case scenario for a tropical cyclone impacting our coastline. After careful review and coordination with emergency management stakeholders, revised hurricane evacuation zones were completed and submitted to S.C. Emergency Management for inclusion in the update.
Last August, Ellis led response and recovery efforts for Tropical Storm Idalia as the storm trekked across Georgetown County impacting inland and coastal communities with heavy rainfall, strong winds and storm surge. Although damage was noted throughout the county, federal assistance was unlikely for residents and business owners. Ellis quickly activated the Winyah Bay Community Organizations Active in Disaster (COAD) to respond and provide support to those impacted within our community. This response came only weeks after Georgetown County Emergency Management and the Winyah Bay COAD collaborated to conduct a disaster response and recovery tabletop exercise using a tropical cyclone scenario.
With our community’s susceptibility to numerous hazards that could impact the continuity of communications, Ellis developed a strategy to build deployable satellite communications capabilities to support emergency communications following a catastrophic disaster. The county used grant funds to purchase the necessary components to build eight deployable satellite communications kits and secured a satellite talkgroup dedicated to Georgetown County.
A non-tropical coastal low-pressure system had severe impacts on part of Georgetown County on Dec. 17. As conditions began to deteriorate on Dec. 17, it became clear that the rainfall forecast was drastically underestimated. With several streets flooded in the City of Georgetown, along with numerous rescues being conducted, Ellis attempted to make his way to the county’s Emergency Operations Center to assist the City’s response efforts. Unable to access the EOC due to flooded roadways, he met with City personnel and set up a makeshift EOC in their conference room. As the heavy rainfall continued, at a rate of nearly 4 inches per hour, the fire station began to take on floodwater, forcing personnel to evacuate. Access to the county EOC was finally achieved and response coordination was reengaged with city and county personnel. Ellis coordinated with numerous Emergency Support Functions in a virtual environment due to the travel hazards, and county personnel supported the response in the City of Georgetown until the situation stabilized hours later.
On the following morning, the county implemented continuity of operations procedures due to major flooding impacting several county offices. Multiple departments were relocated due to flooding from the previous day’s storm. Damage assessments were initiated and the Winyah Bay COAD was once again activated to support the unmet needs of residents impacted by the severe flooding event.
Additionally, Emergency Management opened its doors to provide office space for the City of Georgetown Fire Department’s administrative staff while they worked to remediate the impacts of nearly a foot of floodwater from their headquarters station, providing temporary office space in the EOC. Recovery efforts are ongoing after the storm dumped a previously unheard of14.47 inches of rain on the county in just a few hours.
Ellis was hired as Georgetown County Emergency Manager in the summer of 2019 and promoted shortly thereafter. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Francis Marion University while serving as a part-time and volunteer firefighter in Mullins. He continued to serve in the fire service in Marion after graduation, where he became the Marion County Director of Emergency Management. He then joined the S.C. Emergency Management Division as one of six Regional Emergency Managers, covering eight counties, including Georgetown. He was recognized as the S.C. Emergency Management Division’s Employee of the Year in January of 2019.