Tropical Storm Debby may at last have been moving up the South Carolina coast when Bulloch County and some Georgia state officials held a media conference Wednesday afternoon about the “unprecedented situation” of burst pond dams, flooded homes, water rescues and about 100 damaged roads the former hurricane leaves behind in Bulloch County.

But while officials such as county commissioners Chairman Roy Thompson were expressing hope that the rain was for the most part over, a brief downpour erupted onto the roof of the county Emergency Operations Center and 911 headquarters.

“We’re going to continue our rescue operations,” Thompson said. “We’ve been faced with a lot of things we’ve never been faced with before, such as evacuating homes in the middle of the night.”

Pittman Park United Methodist Church has a shelter open with room for 50 individuals, and about 27 were already there, he said. First Presbyterian Church was slated to be a secondary shelter when needed.

Thompson thanked those churches and Fostering Bulloch, Feed the Boro, Southbridge Community Church, Statesboro First Methodist Church, Compassion Church, Three Tree Coffee and VOAD for contributions to the sheltering effort and said, “I know there’s going to be many, many more.”

He added that he especially wanted to thank those with “boots on the ground,” some of whom may have been working 24 hours straight in rescue and safety efforts.

These included Bulloch County and Statesboro firefighters, Bulloch County Sheriff’s Office personnel, city police officers and personnel from the Georgia State Patrol, Georgia Department of Natural Resources, Georgia Forestry Commission and some other Georgia counties.

“I’m 78-plus years old and have never seen anything like this before in Bulloch County,” said Thompson, a lifelong Bulloch resident. “It’s amazing what has happened, and it’s amazing what is going to continue to happen till all these waters get back down.”

Dams, roads & rescues

As of the 3:30 p.m. conference Bulloch County had about 100 road closures as well as four burst large pond or lake dams, reported county Emergency Management Agency Director Corey Kemp.

From Tuesday night until noon Wednesday, first-responders had answered 10 water rescue calls “where we have rescued over 75 people,” of whom 27 were in shelters, he said.

Some of the rescue calls included multiple households. Boats were used for some rescues, but rescuers waded in for others, he said after the meeting.

About three hours later, a new “Important Notice” appeared on the Bulloch County Public Safety and EMA page on Facebook: “The pond dam at Akins Pond on Akins Pond Road has been breached. All (residents) nearby should be on the lookout for rising water. This may also affect residences downstream in the Highway 24 area. Seek higher ground if possible.”

So that brought the number of publicly noted burst dams to five.

A especially alarming notice had appeared about 24 hours earlier, Tuesday evening: “Oglesby Pond dam has breached. The water will travel down Lotts Creek to Highway 80. The water will travel to Lake Collins as well. Cypress Lake is in the path.”

Oglesby Pond and Lake Collins are near Portal, and Cypress Lake is between Statesboro and Register, with a concentration of homes nearby. So this meant further flooding of the Lotts Creek drainage, from north to south in western Bulloch County.

Aerial assessment

During the media conference, County Manager Tom Couch noted that the other Bulloch officials were flying in a helicopter with state officials, surveying flooded areas from the air. After the conference, the local officials present viewed aerial photos of the previously breached dams, the larger than normal amount of water around Cypress Lake, and even images of water that had risen along the side of Interstate 16 but which had not crossed that major highway.

“I think our roads and bridges infrastructure is going to be the elephant in the room after all the  rescue responses are finished,” Couch said. “We’re still at risk of further damage. The rain has caused multiple breaches.”

While not all of the damage to roads was caused by bursting dams, they did contribute to some of the biggest concerns regarding paved roads.

County officials had issued an urgent notice to area residents shortly before 11 a.m. Tuesday that both dams on Simmons Pond, the large, private recreational pond and historical mill pond on Georgia Highway 46 east of Nevils, had breached.

“All residents near the pond or downstream are STRONGLY ENCOURAGED to seek shelter away from this area – and avoid this portion of Hwy 46 – as the water is expected to rise further before it begins to drop,” stated the notice on the “Bulloch County Public Safety and EMA” page on Facebook.

As Statesboro Herald photojournalist Scott Bryant reported from the scene, the earthen dam that protects Highway 46 from Simmons Pond was breached and water was flowing into Reed Branch.  

After motorists ignored signs not to cross the Highway 46 bridge that spans Reed Branch off Simmons Pond, Mitch Johnson with Bulloch County Public Works said, the county brought in dump trucks of sand to effectively block the bridge on both sides of Highway 46 so no vehicles could cross the bridge in either direction.

Johnson said the county is concerned that as more rain falls Tuesday afternoon, a tree that fell in the spillway might be swept into the bridge and possibly cause significant damage.

Meanwhile, also in the southeastern area of the county, a short section of Nevils-Denmark Road, first photographed with the edge of its pavement crumbling as water rushed underneath, entirely collapsed, leaving a road-wide gap in the pavement and substrate. A county crew also piled dirt there to keep vehicles away.

How much rain?

As of 10:15 a.m. Wednesday, a National Weather Service gauge on Black Creek near Blitchton had recorded 10.92 inches of rain in 48 hours. A similar gauge near Oliver on the Ogeechee River recorded 9.07 inches in the 48 hours ending 9:30 a.m.  Tuesday.

But farmer and county commissioner-elect Ray Davis on Tuesday morning shared readings from the FieldView app showing rainfall estimates in excess of 13 inches since Saturday for multiple fields in eastern and southeastern Bulloch County. FieldView is a trademarked service that bases estimates or radar and rain gauge data.

“Going forward, we would like to ask that you continue to stay off the roads,” Kemp said, a point that Sheriff Noel Brown also pressed.

Brown  said he was “disturbed” by drivers – whether local residents, people passing through or some making deliveries – plowing through water “of undefined depths” and around road closure signs and barricades.

“I’m not going to tolerate that. …,” Brown said, again. “Even when the water has receded, folks, there might be still a washout place that you might run your vehicle off in.”

Mark Sexton, a deputy director of the Georgia Emergency Management Agency-Homeland Security, noted that GEMA was coordinating efforts of state agencies here. GEMA had positioned an “incident management team,” as well as a water rescue teams at Ogeechee Technical College. But most of the rescues of people from homes here had been done by Bulloch County personnel, he said.

Approximately 250 Georgia National Guard soldiers were in the area, mainly working with the state Department of Transportation on placing barriers and signs, Sexton reported.

After the meeting, two  National Guard officers planned with Bulloch County Public Works Director Dink Butler for Guardsmen to begin work Thursday to help evaluate county roads and begin repairs.

VOAD’s role

DeWayne Grice  coordinator of Bulloch County VOAD, or Volunteer Organizations Active in Disaster, had activated the shelter  at Pittman Park UMC in cooperation with the church, at the county’s request.

“We brought in cots, initially 10 cots,” Grice said. “We learned very quickly that wasn’t going to be enough. Director Kemp made a request (online) for further assistance. Organizations like Red Cross, the Salvation Army have now responded. Red Cross has two shelter representatives on the ground. … This is an unprecedented situation for us.”

Cots, bedding and donated food have been provided. Red Cross caseworkers and the Department of Family and Children Services will work with displaced people on longer-term needs, he said.