“We were on our own for the first few days”
Williamston Mayor Rockey Burgess said the town prepared in advance “as best it could” and responded during the height of the storm when Hurricane Helene came through the upstate early Friday morning (Sept. 27).
Burgess said he, along with several town employees and firefighters were at the fire department and town hall at 2 am as the storm began arriving. He said around 5 am Friday, power went out and calls for service began coming in. The 911 call center in Anderson was overwhelmed, he said.
Burgess said the town lost power around 5 am. He said he called the 911 dispatch center, which has 40 lines and was told “they were overwhelmed”.
Burgess said he realized that the town was on their own during the initial stages of the storm response and went into action.
“There were trees and power lines down all over”, he said.
Mayor Burgess said he began coordinating with Fire Chief David Huff to take calls, route and to dispatch local crews of town employees and Williamston firefighters.
They took inventory by riding through the town to assess damage and where trees were blocking roads.
The information was recorded on an Excel spread sheet which Burgess said could be shared with County officials, central dispatch, emergency services and Duke Energy.
The information showed which streets were passable, where there were downed power lines for Duke Energy and Central Dispatch “in real time”.
Burgess said Williamston Firefighters, street department employees and water and sewer employees were dispatched by radio. “It worked really well,” he said.
Five three man crews were working throughout the town to get roads passable. Most were volunteer firemen.
They began responding about 5 am. “We had folks cutting trees as other trees were falling around them,” Burgess said. “We had one tree fall on a tractor. Some folks went above and beyond in their response.”
Burgess said there were 70 trees down across streets and roads in the Town including a number on Main Street. Between 5 am and 9 am most of those were cleared.
“We had every single road (in the town) passable by 4 pm to 5 pm on the day of the storm,” the Mayor said. “We were able to open at least one lane,” which he said was enough for emergency services vehicles to get through.
“We were as prepared as well as we could be,” he said. “Tractors and vehicles had gas and diesel fuel tanks filled. We had gas for chain saws and extra chains.”
“Everything went well for 48 hours and then we began to run out of gas for the tractors, chainsaws needed sharpening, and we needed oil for chainsaws.”
Burgess said they recycled oil and diesel from other equipment to help get through the response.
Generators were deployed to major sewer lift stations to keep sewer services working.
“Our front end loader tore up.”
There were no generators to be found anywhere.
He said it was a learning experience.
“We need to look at generators to provide back up internet for town hall and the police department,” he said. “The fire department has one.”
Water service in the town and surrounding area was not interrupted. The Anderson Joint Regional Water System had power and was able to provide water to Big Creek Hammond and Williamston, which serve most of the area.
There was also bottled water available at Town Hall for persons who needed it.
Burgess said the town garbage pickup will remain on normal schedule.
Storm debris cleanup will be done by a contracted company. Burgess said the company out of Florida is working through SCDOT to provide cleanup in the town and all over Anderson County. He said the company will be paid through FEMA.
“They are handling all the paperwork required by FEMA,” Burgess said.
Burgess said the town equipment could not handle the volume or size of a lot of the trees.
“They have the heavy equipment and trucks to pick up large trees and limbs” and haul off the debris.
Burgess said a temporary holding site is staged on town property located on Mill Street.
Cut trees and tree trunks up to 12 feet long and 6 feet in diameter will be picked up by the contracted company, he said. They will start Oct. 11 and be in the area for 50 days.
Councilman Tony Hagood said the community “Came together as a family. Thank you to everyone who came together.”
Mayor Burgess said he has a “Renewed hope for humanity” in the response he saw from the community. “What I witnessed over the last week, it was not about “me”. It was what can I do to help someone less fortunate.”
One group held prayer for the Town of Williamston on the steps of city hall prior to the arrival of the storm, he said.
