Jeff Whitten, Correspondent.
Water continued to recede– though slowly in some areas–and recovery efforts continued Wednesday in parts of Richmond Hill in the wake of flooding from two rivers swollen by rains from Tropical Storm Debby.
The response is being coordinated by the Georgia Emergency Management Agency, or GEMA, officials said. The recovery effort to date has included first responders, elected and appointed officials and employees from Richmond Hill, Bryan County and Pembroke, as well as a Georgia Army National Guard unit, officials said.
There have been no reports of fatalities or injuries, but in all some 200 families have been evacuated from homes in the areas of the city most impacted by the flooding, Richmond Hill Mayor Russ Carpenter said.
Still, it was unclear on Wednesday how many of those homes had their interiors flooded and how many were cut off or isolated due to water over roads. At various times portions of heavily used Highways 17 and 144 have been under water, as well as Highway 204 (which was closed at Morgan’s Bridge at one point) and hundreds of photos shared on social media show neighborhood streets under water.
In addition, approximately 80 patients of the Bryan County Health and Rehabilitation Center in Richmond Hill were also evacuated due to flood waters, and Love’s Seafood, the long-popular restaurant owned by Richmond Hill residents Fulton and Donna Love that sits on the Chatham County side of the Ogeechee across Highway 17 from the Kings Ferry landing, was flooded.
The Red Cross, United Way, local and area churches and a small army of volunteers now staging out of the Richmond Hill Community Center have also been helping those impacted by the storm.
Among those offering to help, Carpenter noted, was Donna Love. The mayor said she sent him a text Saturday night offering the use of their boat if anyone needed help evacuating.
“To me that speaks highly of our community,” Carpenter said. “Here she is in the middle of her restaurant flooding and she’s offering to help other people.”
Another restaurateur, Hinesville Chick-fil-A owner Nick Westbrook, brought in a food truck to feed volunteers and responders, free of charge.
“There have been so many volunteers who’ve stepped up, people sandbagging throughout the night Saturday and Sunday, people bringing food and water, people helping however they can” Carpenter said. “If there’s a bright side to this, it’s that bad times, difficult times, bring out the best in people.”
Officials say they have, however, been dealing with misinformation posted on social media – there hasn’t been a boil water notice issued by Richmond Hill, Carpenter said, and “our public works department is working around the clock to keep our wastewater plant running, there’s been no major spillage. We do ask for people to stay on official social media for information.”
There’ve also been claims the county government abandoned residents of a subdivision to fend for themselves in the flood waters, though those too were untrue, officials said.
Damage primarily reported in Richmond Hill
There were other areas in Bryan County affected by the slowly moving Tropical Storm Debby, which by Aug. 8 had dumped nearly a foot of rain on Eden in Effingham County and more than 10 inches on Pembroke and nearly 10 inches on Richmond Hill, according to the National Weather Service. There was heavier rain further inland as well. Rainfall totals in Bulloch County, for example, exceeded 12 inches, as Debby saturated the area.
Still, while there were reports of roads washed out in North Bryan and minor damage to some structures, the brunt of the flooding appears to have been borne by certain areas of Richmond Hill, as well as communities in Chatham and Effingham counties near the Ogeechee --- which on Saturday, Aug. 10, crested at a major flood stage total of 17.97 feet at Eden, six feet over its flood stage of 11 feet. The record there is 22 feet.
In Richmond Hill, the Ogeechee reached 10.19 feet, a historic amount of flooding and nearly three feet higher than the previous historic crest of 7.24 feet over flood stage on March 9, 2020, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
All that came days after Debby went northward and it initially appeared Richmond Hill had managed to dodge a bullet, Carpenter said.
“Everything was getting a bit back to normal by Wednesday. On Thursday night and Friday, we started seeing the waters rise,” he said. “A lot.”
What then unfolded was unlike any hurricane or weather event Carpenter, a Richmond Hill native, has ever seen, and he can recall the eye of Hurricane David passing right over Strathy Hall in 1979.
“This is altogether different from a hurricane,” he said. “No drainage system in the world would have prevented this. This was an act of nature. We’re dealing with a catastrophic act of nature.”
‘A tale of two rivers’
In essence, Richmond Hill has been hit by the flooding from not one but two rivers, the Ogeechee and the Canoochee, which meet at I-95.
The former had yet to crest on Friday, Aug. 9, but drivers on I-95 over the weekend may have been startled by the site of the Ogeechee’s proximity to the bottom of the interstate bridge. Bryan County Commission Chairman Carter Infinger, who was among local elected officials who spent long hours helping direct the response, was among those flown by the Georgia State Patrol over the area for a view of the flooding, which included a pass over the bridge.
He said the pilot told passengers the bridge was acting as a “big barn door” and if the river got high enough to hit the bridge it could knock it aside.
“He said ‘man if that water pushes against this bridge it could push it right off,’” Infinger recalled.
As the river continued its rise past 10 feet in Richmond Hill it began flooding homes along its path, and started the flooding of homes north of Highway 144 in Richmond Hill, first in Richmond Place and Mulberry, and J.F. Gregory Park. While the Canoochee also crested at just under 17 feet on Aug. 10, according to NOAA, it would at first be held back by the rising waters of the larger Ogeechee. Once the Ogeechee began to recede, waters from the Canoochee previously bottled up began to pour in south of Highway 144, impacting Rushing Street, Carter Street, Second Street and in the White Oak and Live Oak subdivisions off Highway 17.
An illustration of this occurred in the area around Kroger, which is north of Highway 144. As waters from the Ogeechee were going down and receding in neighborhoods behind the supermarket, across the road water from the Canoochee began pushing up out of storm drains and ultimately flooding both Richmond Hill First Baptist Church and Richmond Hill Methodist Church.
Relief efforts ongoing
It’s unclear how much damage has been done in terms of dollars, as assessments from GEMA are ongoing. But officials say that dollar amount will determine whether the city and residents impacted will be eligible for help from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Meanwhile, there are multiple churches and other agencies continuing to try to help those impacted by the storm.
“People should start seeing a lot of pumps around Richmond Hill pumping water somewhere downstream,” Carpenter said, adding that GEMA has provided the city 10 pumps and there are likely others that will be used to help get water out of flood areas.
And if there are bright sides, one is that the current flood is considered by those who study such things as one which could happen only once in 500 to 1,000 years, officials say.
Another is that no one was hurt – not even a pet was lost, according to officials – and much of the city was spared.
“If there’s any good from this it wasn’t all over the city, as some cities have experienced from this,” Carpenter said. “We’ve said this is a tale of two cities. The golf course over at Ford Plantation flooded badly, but the same day, the people were playing golf at Richmond Hill Golf Course off Port Royal Road.”
To keep up with city-wide updates regarding floods related to Tropical Storm Debby, visit the official City of Richmond Hill website at https://www.richmondhill- ga.gov/.