By Lolita Huckaby
Debby provides good practice
BEAUFORT
Okay, Tropical Storm Debby can be considered a trial run.
The 2024 Atlantic Hurricane Season is one-third over (June 1 through Nov. 30), and Debby, which brought a reported 10 to 12 inches of rain to the Beaufort area, was a good test of the county and municipality’s readiness.
From all reports, we faired pretty well. Some trees came down and some roads were blocked, but let’s face it, this is the Lowcountry. And the pooling water that came from the sky more so than high tides threatened homes which were, unfortunately, built in low-lying areas.
Trees that were probably gonna fall naturally, like those beautiful oaks we try to protect, did come down and so did the pines, especially along Sams Point Road where the county’s only verified tornado touched down, according to the National Weather Service.
We were lucky. Seven people did lose their lives, none in South Carolina, luckily, that have been reported, but three in Florida because of fatal car wrecks and two as a result of falling trees.
But we didn’t get the 18 to 24 inches that the forecasters had predicted with adjectives like “catastrophic” or “historic.”
According to various reports, the City of Beaufort Public Works crews working with the S.C. Department of Transportation teams did a good job of clearing ditches and storm drains even before Debby came knocking. The $8 million Mossy Oaks drainage project seemed to do its job keeping what rain did fall out of houses in the 550-acre drainage area it was designed to protect.
The Mossy Oaks project was a collaborative effort by Beaufort County, the City of Beaufort and the Town of Port Royal, partially funded by the county’s Stormwater Management fee, a charge that has shown up on property tax bills since 2005 when county leaders established the program. The seven-member board meets regularly to review project proposals and give direction to the county stormewater department.
For those who raised questions about what, exactly, the city is doing about issues like stormwater drainage improvement, they’ll be able to get answers if they attend, or watch on Facebook, the City Council’s August 20 work session. The council members were already scheduled to review the city’s capital improvement projects list, which includes several major (read multi-million-dollar) drainage issues.
It will be the perfect opportunity to find out what city officials have been working on and how the council members feel about it, especially with the municipal elections coming up in November.
Nothing to worry about
BEAUFORT – In case you missed it, South Carolina also experienced an earthquake Friday morning.
While most folks were focused on where Debby was headed or how the athletes were doing at the Olympics, an earthquake with a magnitude of 2.29 was felt three hours northwest in Kershaw County. There was no reported damage, but it must have been somewhat unsettling for the folks of Kershaw who’ve already experienced five quakes this year.
Beaufort is on the remote end of an established quake line, but the last recorded shake happened in 1989.
For the record, the S.C. Geological Survey reported 28 quakes in the state in 2023 and 125 since 2021. The state average is six to 10 annually.
Lolita Huckaby Watson is a community volunteer and newspaper columnist. In her former role as a reporter with The Beaufort Gazette, The Savannah Morning News, Bluffton Today and Beaufort Today, she prided herself in trying to stay neutral and unbiased. As a columnist, these are her opinions. Her goal is to be factual but opinionated, based on her own observations. Feel free to contact her at bftbay@gmail.com.
