The weather outlook for the low country of South Carolina looked unsettling. Alan Walters, charged with protecting more than 9,000 students as the executive director of safety for the Georgetown County school district there, pored over the forecasts. Just a few weeks into the 2015 school year, he was facing the possibility of a dangerous storm. With computer forecast models literally all over the map in projecting where the storm—soon to become Hurricane Joaquin—would go, Walters was left to weigh the options on his own.
