SEO Company in Ladson SC

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - Officials at the South Carolina Emergency Management Division are closely monitoring our state’s seismic activity.

Earlier this week, the Summerville and Ladson area experienced three earthquakes in a matter of hours.

Derrec Becker with the state’s Emergency Management Division says the last time we had three earthquakes in about seven hours was back in 2003. And while he says it’s a little unusual to get three in a row, it just proves how seismically active South Carolina is.

“Where these earthquakes occurred is centered sort of near where the largest earthquake ever recorded on the Eastern seaboard occurred, and that was back in August of 1886,” Becker says.

On August 31, 1886, a magnitude 7.3 earthquake hit Charleston. The initial shock lasted nearly one minute. It was felt over 2.5 million square miles from Chicago to Cuba.

“You felt a 3.2,” Becker says about the earthquake that occurred Monday night. “Imagine an earthquake that is exponentially greater than that. That’s what we experienced. That’s why we’re very cautious when we talk about earthquakes.”

SCEMD did a study and looked at what would happen if we got an earthquake of a similar magnitude of what we got in 1886. They found the following:

South Carolina normally experience 10-20 earthquakes a year, about two or three of which we can actually feel.

“We know that some people might be concerned seeing three right in a row is the building up to something major,” Becker says. “Unfortunately, we won’t know until we get a major earthquake and then we can say definitively ‘yes those were building up to this and those were foreshocks.’ If we don’t experience a major earthquake after this, or in the near future, it’s just normal background seismicity.”

Officials say they are about 50/50 the three earthquakes we experienced were just the Earth releasing pressure. We won’t know if it was building toward something greater for another six months to a year or even longer.

Click here to look through SCEMD’s Earthquake Guide which lists how to take cover and how to prepare for an earthquake.

Copyright 2021 WCSC. All rights reserved.

Here are five things to know when Clemson (8-3) plays at 7:30 p.m. Saturday (SEC Network) against South Carolina (6-5) at Williams-Brice Stadium in Columbia.

How to watch:Clemson at South Carolina football game: Kickoff time, how to watch, TV channel

Recent games haven’t been close

Clemson is favored by double figures, and if that turns out to be accurate, it will fall in line with recent history. In the past dozen games in this rivalry, only once (2015) has the final score been within single digits. In the rest, the average margin of victory has been 22.5 points.

Clemson has won six straight, the biggest being 56-7 at home in 2016, when the Tigers would go on to finish 14-1 with a national championship victory against Alabama.

South Carolina won the five previous meetings, the biggest being 34-13 at home in 2011, when the Gamecocks would go on to finish 11-2 with a Capital One Bowl in Orlando, Florida.

Even the only close finish, a 37-32 win by Clemson in 2015, wasn’t really that close. The Gamecocks scored a touchdown and an extra point with one second remaining.

Gamecocks will take your pick

Nobody in the country has more interceptions this season than South Carolina senior safety Jaylan Foster with five. Foster is a former standout at Byrnes High School and Gardner-Webb University, where he was Big South freshman of the year.

Four of his picks came in the first four games of the season. As a team, the Gamecocks have 14 interceptions, which leads the SEC and ranks top 10 nationally. Clemson quarterback D.J. Uiagalelei has thrown nine interceptions, two of which were returned for touchdowns.

The turnover margin overall is even, however, at plus-one for each side. South Carolina has forced 23 turnovers but has committed 22, including a dozen lost fumbles. Clemson has forced 17 turnovers and given up 16.

South Carolina on third quarterback

The Gamecocks are down to their third starting quarterback because of injuries, but former FCS player Jason Brown has led them to victories against Florida and Auburn in the past few weeks.

Brown is a senior in his first season at South Carolina after transferring from Saint Francis in Loretto, Pennsylvania. He has been an underwhelming 40-for-69 passing (58 percent) with five touchdowns and three interceptions.

The Gamecocks’ projected starter, Luke Doty, injured a foot in preseason, and they turned to graduate assistant Zeb Noland, who played at North Dakota State and still had eligibility. Noland injured a knee in the third game, and Doty returned to start the next four but eventually needed surgery on that foot.

Injuries keep piling up for Clemson

Clemson coach Dabo Swinney joked that he could almost fill out an entire starting lineup, and a pretty good one, with Tigers who are out for the season. There are 17 of those.

Among them are all-ACC offensive lineman Matt Bockhorst as well as all-ACC defensive tackle Bryan Bresee and defensive end Justin Foster. The wide receivers group has been especially hard hit, losing top players Justyn Ross, Frank Ladson Jr., Joseph Ngata and E.J. Williams along with tight end Braden Galloway.

Last week, the Tigers started a couple of first-year freshmen and a fifth-year walk-on at receiver. Williams, who was back after having thumb surgery earlier in the season, got hurt in practice last week and is doubtful to play in the regular-season finale.

Credentials for better bowls at stake

By the time this game kicks off, Clemson will know whether it will be going to the ACC Championship Game with a chance to play in a New Year’s Six game, the Fiesta Bowl in Glendale, Arizona. For that to happen, the Tigers need N.C. State to lose Friday night to North Carolina and Wake Forest to lose noon Saturday to Boston College.

Other ACC tie-ins are Dec. 31 games in El Paso, Texas, (Tony the Tiger Bowl) and Jacksonville, Florida, (TaxSlayer Bowl); Dec. 30 in Charlotte (Mayo Bowl); and Dec. 29 in Orlando, Florida, (Cheez-It) and New York (Pinstripe Bowl).

South Carolina, meanwhile, has exceeded expectations by becoming bowl- eligible. The most likely landing spots for the Gamecocks seem to be Charlotte or Dec. 28 in either the Birmingham (Ala.) Bowl or Liberty Bowl in Memphis, Tennessee.

SUMMERVILLE — In less than a week, the area surrounding the Golf Club at Westcott Plantation in the Ladson area recorded three minor earthquakes.

But experts said it’s not something residents should start sounding an alarm over.

“You’re seeing the result of increased monitoring,” said Steven Jaume, a professor with the College of Charleston’s Department of Geology and Environmental Geosciences.

On July 16 at around 11 p.m., a 2 magnitude earthquake was recorded near Dunbury Drive in Summerville. Later on July 22, two more were listed near the same area — 1.3 magnitude temblor near Thornton Drive and a 1.1 minor earthquake near Oak Leaf Road.

The three reports aren’t unusual since the area regularly sees small movements, Jaume said. There was also one that took place on July 21, but experts said it was too small to be recorded.

“Most of them go unreported because they’re too small,” Jaume said.

More survey materials mean recordings of these events will likely increase. Jaume, along with his colleagues at C of C and Georgia Tech, installed four permanent seismometers in the area, one of which streams data live.

Seismometers are used to track the motion of the ground during an earthquake. The additional monitors by Jaume and his colleagues were funded by the U.S. Geological Survey.

A similar program was planned 10 years ago with Virginia Tech. That equipment had to be taken to Virginia following the 5.8-magnitude temblor in that state in 2011.

But the main reason gathering that data is so important dates back to the 1886 quake in the Charleston area that led to the death of 100 people. It was a 7.3-magnitude temblor regarded as the largest earthquake in the Southeast.

Nine of every 10 brick buildings were leveled in Charleston and nine of every 10 in Summerville were damaged.

Experts still aren’t precisely aware where the fault is since the earthquake happened before the use of seismometers. The increased monitoring will help with that.

It will also help builders make better earthquake preparations.

“We don’t have the level of detail we would like to have,” Jaume said.

If residents do feel an earthquake, they’re advised to report it to the U.S. Geological Survey at earthquake.usgs.gov/data/dyfi/ to help with data collection.

Though residents shouldn’t be alarmed by the recent earthquakes, experts said it is a reminder to be prepared for an inevitable larger event. They advise families to add earthquake preparations as part of their emergency preparedness kits.

The South Carolina Emergency Management Division lists some helpful preparation tips on its website at scemd.org.

Unlike a hurricane, people can’t see an earthquake coming days in advance, Jaume said. So it’s best to be prepared.

LADSON, S.C. (WCBD) – The Coastal Carolina Fair promises a return to food, fun and thrills when it kicks off at the Ladson fairgrounds in late October.

The fair, which is typically held in the fall each year, was canceled in 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic. Organizers last summer announced they made the difficult decision out of “extreme caution for the health and safety of the community, volunteers, and staff members” as cases of the virus were on the rise.

“The Coastal Carolina Fair is a world-class fair. It’s got one of the biggest mobile midways in America and we just could not produce that fair and be safe for the public and the workers, bottom line, that’s what happened,” said Glenn McConnell, President of the Coastal Carolina Fair, in June 2020.

Many of the annual events people across the Lowcountry love are back on this year, and that includes the Coastal Carolina Fair when it returns for its 64^th year beginning October 28^th through November 7^th.

The Exchange Club of Charleston, which hosts the fair, said proceeds from the annual event are given back to the community through service grants. More than $500,000 was donated to over 60 local non-profit organizations and individuals following the 2019 fair.

Guests can enjoy plenty of delicious – and often interesting – food from dozens of vendors, exciting games and rides, and myriad creative arts, music, and animal exhibits.

A number of COVID-19 safety precautions will be implemented for the fair such as plastic shields and barriers, cashless payment options, and increased hand sanitizer stations. They also hope to add more kiosks at the fair which will help you complete online transactions.

You are also recommended to purchase your tickets ahead of time. Tickets will go on sale October 1st; we’re told you can buy them in advance online or at Circle K locations which will save both money and time, especially if you purchase them before the first day of the fair.

Live entertainment has not yet been announced for this year’s fair. Fair organizers say entertainment will not be announced before October 1st – that is the date tickets go on sale.

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - Google is taking notice of a Lowcountry business. The tech giant chose a Ladson company to be part of a new mentoring program, designed to help startups around the nation grow their business.

This partnership all started because of a gallon of milk.

Marlon Brown is busy as he’s a working husband, father and grandfather. So it is not uncommon that he forgot his wife had asked him to pick up a gallon of milk one day after work.

But being a software engineer, his solution was anything but common.

“So, I get in the house and I say,’ You know what? I’m just going to write you an application to where you can attach the message you want to send me to the Walmart I’m going to pass on my way home and then when I pass the Walmart, then I’ll get the message,’” Brown said.

When Brown told his cousin Kendrick Pullen, who lives in Florida, about the app he had created the two formed a business partnership and Lifetagger was born.

“Now Lifetagger allows you to attach content into any signal your phone can detect,” Brown said. “Whether it’s wifi, geolocation, whether it’s beacons. We even do QR codes now so we’re about delivering content when and where it matters.”

The app also works by using sound.

“So Lifetagger can work like Shazam, we can listen to the room for a few seconds, tell what song is on, tell what movie’s playing, and so you can get content when you’re near an audio signal,” Brown said.

Their business pitch had already gained them some clients, but in looking for ways to grow their clientele, Pullen applied for the Google for Startups Founders Academy in January.

Just 50 companies from around the nation would be chosen to take part in the new mentoring program in March. Lifetagger is the only business from South Carolina.

“Me as the product guy, I’m a software engineer by trade so I write the code,” Brown said. “I’m getting enlightened about the sales and stuff. It’s an interesting journey.”

The six month program focuses on sales, marketing and funding and will wrap up in September.

Brown says one of the core values of Lifetagger is “try stuff.”

He says if you have an idea, don’t just let it be an idea, put it into action.

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