The National Weather Service was forecasting by early Friday afternoon 2-4 inches of snow in some areas and one- to two-tenths of an inch of ice and up to an inch of sleet across the Upstate as a powerful winter storm continued to moved steadily toward the area.

But by 9 a.m. Friday, Union County Supervisor Tommy Sinclair was surrounded by officials from the county and city of Union discussing response measures to the area’s first winter storm of the year.

Union Public Safety Department Chief Sam White, City of Union Public Works Director Perry Harmon, E911 Director Robbie Hines, Union County EMS Director Ronnie Roberson, Union County Sheriff David Taylor, county road department director Myron Harris, EPA Director Robert Garner, county shop employee Troy Champion and county employee Jerry Brannon sat with Sinclair at the center discussing how each agency and its employees would handle the expected wicked weather and make sure measures were in place to cope with whatever Mother Nature dumped on the county.

Several issues were discussed during the meeting — from who would transport nurses and doctors, if needed, to what critical facilities would need to be dug out first, including the dialysis center and both nursing homes in Union.

Officials with the county and healthcare entities were urging employees to prepare to come to work and stay and some discussion was given on who would transport dialysis patients in the event they could not get to the center for treatment on their own. Patients normally are taken by private ambulance, but during the last major winter storm the area experienced the E911 system fielded calls for transport.

Concerns were addressed about the threat of power outages at county facilities and how they would affect operations, especially response efforts. Champion informed the group the emergency generator at the E911 dispatch center is ready and a backup generator on hand in case of malfunctions.

Decisions also were made as to who would be in charge. That duty will fall upon the senior county and city officials — i.e. Sinclair and Union mayor Harold Thompson or mayor pro tem Keith Henderson — available during the storm.

County officials also wanted to make sure if extra help is needed during clean up and response efforts that it would be available. Sinclair said any of those requests would need his authorization.

Officials at Friday’s meeting also said an Emergency Operations Center — based at the county’s E911 dispatch center — also would open later that evening if the situation warranted to serve as a central command to coordinate efforts.

Phone numbers of key officials were gathered to make contact and communication easier during the storm between departments and entities. Radios linked to a statewide communications system — owned by both the county and city — also will be in use to help make communicating easier.

The purpose of Friday’s meeting was to prepare for a worst case scenario and make sure responders and officials were ready for whatever the storm brought to Union County. Sinclair said it helped to refine the rolls of each department and entity and priorities.

Officials met again at 4 p.m. Friday to finalize plans but by the end of the more than one hour long meeting that morning, Sinclair was confident in the preparations the group had made.

“I feel better than I did an hour ago,” he said. “It ain’t going to be easy, but we are us and we’re going to get through tomorrow. We’re ahead of the game and making plans for it.”

The South Carolina Department of Transportation, too, was hard at work Friday making preparations for the storm.

The DOT reported just before noon Friday that anti-icing operations began in Cherokee, Chester, Fairfield, Lancaster, Union and York counties at 7:30 a.m. The entity’s main concerns Friday were Interstates 85 and 77 and South Carolina routes 9, 176 and 521.

Salt-brining operations continued throughout the day and will continue until the storm subsides.