Charleston, SC became a Resilient America pilot community in 2014. The city faces a variety of natural and manmade hazards including floods, king tides, hurricanes, tornados, earthquakes, wildfires, terrorism, and hazardous material incidents. Over the past several years, it has experienced notable flood events including an historic rainfall in October 2015, Hurricane Matthew in 2016, Hurricane Irma in 2017, and Hurricane Florence in 2018. The last significant event prior to these was Hurricane Hugo in 1989. The city experiences “nuisance flooding” on a regular basis, and this type of flooding is increasing each year. The region as a whole is experiencing impacts from climate change; for example, many areas are facing increased risks due to sea level rise.

Charleston has focused on flood resilience in recent years. A volunteer group of individuals representing public and private sector organizations created the Charleston Resilience Network (CRN) which is working to build resilience in the community by sharing information, connecting partners, and creating a unified strategy. The CRN has been ResilientAmerica's primary partner in Charleston. In December 2015, the city identified sea level rise as a top priority and created its first sea level rise strategy (the city recently published the second edition of this strategy Flooding and Sea Level Rise Strategy. In early 2017, Charleston created and hired its first chief resilience officer.

Timeline of Resilient America activities with the Charleston pilot community:

• October 2014: Kickoff meeting
• February 2015: ResilientAmerica met with the Charleston Resilience Network (CRN) and other Charleston stakeholders to discuss goals, strategic direction, and short-, mid-, and long-term objectives in the region.
• April 2015: ResilientAmerica organized and facilitated the Community Resilience Workshop.
• April 2015: ResilientAmerica facilitated the role-playing Extreme Events game in Charleston. About 60 stakeholders from the region participated!
• June 2015: Meeting with the CRN.
• December 2015: Meeting with local stakeholders to introduce the ResilientAmerica program to new audiences and to build new relationships.
• February 2015: ResilientAmerica partnered with the CRN to host the symposium, "Understanding the October 2015 Charleston Floods."
• May 2016: Meeting with the CRN to discuss the implementation of the Zurich Flood Resilience Measurement framework in Charleston.
• July 2016: ResilientAmerica implemented the Zurich Flood Resilience Measurement framework to measure Charleston's baseline flood resilience, collecting data from stakeholders with expertise in public health, disaster preparedness and response, and the natural environment.
• September 2016: ResilientAmerica continued the data collection effort to measure Charleston's baseline flood resilience, collecting data from stakeholders from the business community and academia, and from local community groups.
• November 2016: ResilientAmerica met with the CRN to talk about the impacts of Hurricane Matthew on the community.
• March 2017: ResilientAmerica met with the CRN to review the data collected using the Zurich Flood Resilience Measurement framework and assess Charleston's baseline flood resilience.
• April 2017: ResilientAmerica met with local stakeholders to discuss resilience initiatives in the county.
• May 2017: ResilientAmerica met with the CRN to review the results of the baseline flood resilience assessment including the common themes that emerged from the assessment, the community's successes and challenges related to flood resilience, and potential opportunities and solutions for building or enhancing flood resilience in the community.
• November 2017: Following Hurricane Irma in September 2017, ResilientAmerica implemented the Zurich Flood Resilience Measurement framework in Charleston to better understand the community's preparedness, response, and recovery. ResilientAmerica met with stakeholders with expertise in preparedness and response, the natural environment, academia, faith-based communities, and public health as well as held meetings with local community groups.
• December 2017: ResilientAmerica continued the data collection effort, meeting with stakeholders from the business and development communities and held meetings with local community groups.
• February 2018: ResilientAmerica met with the CRN to review the data collected in November and December 2017 using the Zurich Flood Resilience Measurement framework.

Resilient America established multi-stakeholder relationships (e.g., NOAA, SC Sea Grant Consortium, SC Department of Health and Environmental Control, City of Charleston, College of Charleston, American Red Cross, South Carolina Aquarium) within the community to address the community’s resilience goals and priorities. In addition to the CRN, the Resilient America engaged many other stakeholders in the region to understand resilience priorities and challenges across multiple sectors and to identify diverse partners for implementing activities. Flooding, both chronic and catastrophic, was the primary risk identified across multiple stakeholders and became the focus of the Resilient America’s work in the community.