South Carolina Residents Can Use Smartphones to Report Storm Damage

The 2014 Atlantic hurricane season begins Sunday, and officials in South Carolina are enlisting the help of the public in gauging storm damage.

The Department of Health and Environmental Control has developed programs allowing people to provide photos and other information about both storm damage and unusually high tides to the department. They can use their smartphones, tablets or computers to send in the information.

Dan Burger of the DHEC’s Coastal Services Division says the original intent was to create a program to be used by municipal officials and coastal regulators.

But he says it was decided instead to develop programs that would allow the public to send in information, giving officials more eyes on the coast. The MyCoast programs are available at http://mycoast.org/sc.