Military, emergency management and weather forecasting officials Thursday told U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint at Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort they are prepared to take on the challenges of a hurricane.

At 37 feet above sea level, the airfield's elevation is among the highest in the county and will be the launching place for not only military rescue and recovery efforts but also will be where Beaufort County Emergency Management will position vehicles if a hurricane hits the Lowcountry said Col. Robert Lanham, commanding officer at the air station.

"We're in the Lowcountry because this is where most of the damage can be done," DeMint said at the airfield after his tour of the Gulf Stream-IV jet Hurricane Hunter, which is outfitted with scientific equipment for the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration to measure the strength of hurricane winds used to determine the path of the storm...

If a Category 5 hurricane hit Beaufort County at high tide, the storm surge would leave downtown Beaufort under 25 feet of water, said John Jones Jr., deputy director of the National Weather Service...

...With new communications systems, such as the reverse 911 that calls residents at their homes to warn them of disasters and extensive bus transportation for low-income residents, Winn told DeMint the county will be able to evacuate everyone who wants to leave.

The problem is once they reach the county line, exit routes narrow and clog, Winn said. So, he asked the senator, who heads the Senate Subcommittee on Disaster Prevention and Prediction, for federal highway money to study and plan for a four-lane multi-use highway out of the Lowcountry to the Aiken-August area.

"You always sit at a desk and say 'I wish someone from Washington could ask my opinion,'" Winn said after the meeting with the senator. "I got a better chance today than I did before today."

DeMint received positive feedback from local officials on the Warning, Alert and Response Network Act, which aims to establish a national network for the transmission of alerts through several means of communication, including cell phones and Blackberries. DeMint said he hopes the network could send hurricane evacuation information to an out-of-town visitor on Hilton Head Island or even transmit Amber Alerts.

Winn and Lanham also touted the uniquely cooperative relationship between the county and its three military bases in coordinating disaster preparedness. Fiber-optic cables recently have been installed for better communication between the bases and the county's emergency operating command on Duke Street.

Government officials as far as California have traveled to Beaufort to learn how the civilian and military officials here collaborate in funding and training, Winn said.

All officials stressed individual preparedness and family plans for hurricanes.

"We still have their attention, and we need to keep awareness as high as possible," Jones said.