A hurricane as strong as the one that recently ravaged the Gulf Coast could overwhelm South Carolina's ability to care for the elderly and disabled, the state's emergency response agency has reported.

The South Carolina Emergency Management Division's self-assessment suggested the state hire regional coordinators to help keep track of special needs residents. The coordinators would help get elderly and disabled residents registered so authorities know where to look for them if there is a disaster.

Gov. Mark Sanford's executive budget includes funding for area resident coordinators, and agency director Ronald Osborne said he has e-mailed some legislators about his need for the coordinators.

State law requires nursing homes and residential care facilities to provide transportation for residents during a hurricane. But the facilities say they are having a hard time contracting with transportation firms. And even if all special needs residents are able to get out of these facilities, emergency management officials say existing medical needs shelters would be overwhelmed. Capacity is limited, the report said, and personnel need more training and equipment to deal with special needs patients.

The report, which was delivered to the Department of Homeland Security last week, also said the state needs to develop evacuation routes for use if there is a "dirty bomb" attack in South Carolina. But Osborne said constructing terrorism-specific plans is difficult and suggests the state could use hurricane and flood evacuation routes already in place.

"Tell me where it's going to happen, and I can develop a plan," he said. "When you look at what-ifs, it makes the planning process huge."

The state updated its hurricane evacuation plans in 2001, two years after motorists on Interstate 26 were stuck in traffic while Hurricane Floyd threatened the coast. New telephone emergency notification systems are being tested, and Osborne said his agency is considering the use of relief ships that would be docked at coastal ports and stocked with supplies.

South Carolina met the Homeland Security Department's deadline last week to certify it has a disaster response plan. The state now has until March 2 to submit a plan for how it would spend terrorism and disaster response funding, and Homeland Security will decide in May which plans, if any, it will fund in South Carolina. The federal agency is trying to determine how $2.5 billion in grant money will be spent.

The head of the agency that serves as South Carolina's official contact with Homeland Security said changes in the way federal anti-terrorism funding is handed out could mean less money for South Carolina. State Law Enforcement Division chief Robert Stewart said the government's funding requests are now based on an area's risk of being attacked, not on an area's population, as in years past.

Stewart said South Carolina has received approximately $95 million in anti-terrorism funding over the past three years. Some of that money was used by responders during the Graniteville chlorine spill in 2005, Stewart said.