Emergency responders give all-clear in wake of storm

The biggest job remaining after Beaufort County’s brush by Tropical Storm Hermine is to pick up debris littering front lawns and sidewalks.

On Sunday morning, most storm damage had been dealt with, and emergency response was back to normal, according to fire department officials across the county and the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office.

There were only four outages caused by two incidents reported on South Carolina Electric & Gas’ website for Beaufort County on Sunday afternoon. SCE&G spokesman Eric Boomhower said those outages might not be directly related to the storm. By late Saturday night, there were under 10 outages after crews had been working on damages lines and poles from Friday through the early morning hours of Sunday.

“We feel pretty good about the response we had to the storm,” Boomhower said. Across the system, they went from about 38,000 outages to double digits in a matter of days.

The quick cleanup and preparedness was a countywide effort, Beaufort-Port Royal Fire Department Fire Chief Reece Bertholf said.

“This was an excellent example of all agencies and departments working together to ensure the citizens of our county are as safe as possible,” Bertholf said. “Preparation for large-scale events is an ongoing process year over year. Yes, we are prepared. Yes, there was damage and property loss as a result of this storm, but all emergency personnel public works, utilities and citizens did a very good job being prepared and subsequently cleaning up afterward.”

Lady’s Island-St. Helena Island Fire District spokesman Scott Harris said he expects cleanup on residential properties could take a few more days, now that roadways have been cleared and downed lines were taken care of. Bluffton Township Fire District, Hilton Head Island Fire and Rescue, Sheldon Fire District and the Sheriff’s Office all confirmed that major storm-related issues had been addressed.