Good morning Clemson,
One week ago, most of our community woke to no power, fallen trees, and blocked roads. Others woke to flooded yards and/or substantial home and property damage.Today, our City is far from clear and has a long road to recovery, but we get closer to “normal” with every day.
Helene formed quickly and gave us very little lead time, yet our City staff kicked into high gear and prepared our facilities, infrastructure, and people as much as possible. Public Works emptied garbage trucks on Thursday rather than their normal Friday and rescheduled Friday’s commercial garbage pick for Saturday morning in anticipation of high winds. They cleared the grinding facility of mulch in anticipation of trees, branches, and other debris. Stormwater visited flood prone areas to clear drains and culverts of debris and spoke with contractors at larger construction sites to ensure they adequately prepared their sites. Utilities lowered the equalizer basin at the wastewater treatment plant to accommodate increased flow due to heavy rainfall. Public Works, Urban and Park Land Management, Utilities, and Police made sure all vehicles and equipment were ready with backup fuel, and city staff in all of these departments were prepared to work long hours and successive days. Our public safety officials also met with county and university public safety officials to be sure a response plan was in place, and all of our IT and communications personnel and other officials were prepared to work from home to communicate important information. And all of this was already done or in progress by Thursday morning when staff met to update each other and settle last minute questions and concerns.
When Helene officially arrived in the early morning hours of Friday, City officials were assessing the situation, front line responders were already in place to close roads that were blocked or flooded, and our communications team was operating without power and with spotty data, frantically pushing out information and updates to the community. If you ask any of them, I’m sure they will tell you that those hours in the storm were a bit of a blur, but they got through it admirably.
When the storm passed and the winds calmed, our staff began the initial cleanup process, clearing whatever they could to ensure travel was possible, especially for emergency vehicles. By 6pm, all of our City roads were passable - barring the few that were blocked by power lines. I spent time with some of our police officers clearing roads, and I saw not only our staff members working hard and helping each other but also neighbors stepping in to help each other and these crews. I saw independent commercial crews stepping in to volunteer their help. I saw kindness, grace, empathy, and strength.
I saw Clemson.
I’ve long said that Clemson is special because of the people, and Helene only reaffirmed that belief multiple times over. I am humbled and amazed at our staff and our residents, but I cannot say that I am surprised because that is Clemson. I am honored to have the opportunity to serve this incredible community.
In terms of recovery, we’re certainly making excellent progress. This week, we have had multiple crews all over the City cleaning up roads. As of Thursday afternoon, nearly 100 of our City streets have been cleared by city staffed crews and contracted workers. Most of these individuals have been working 10 and 12 hour days of hard physical labor. They are tired, but they are dedicated.This weekend, most of these crews will be taking a well deserved break from work, but many of them will be cleaning up at home. And Monday morning, they will all be right back at it. I appreciate these efforts, and I have heard from many of our residents who have expressed their appreciation. If you want to know more about the cleanup process, our communications team put together a video showcasing these efforts at: https://fb.watch/u_SY3VoM8r/. (And one other note: our residents faced just minimal interruptions to city services once the storm passed. Garbage routes still ran as normal, CATbus routes also ran as close to normal as conditions allowed, and parks were cleaned up for residents needing to get out of the house by Saturday afternoon.)
In terms of non-City services, Duke Energy is making progress getting the lights back on. On Saturday morning, Pickens County had more than 19,000 outages. As of Thursday afternoon, that number was down to just over 6,000, and crews and materials are still arriving daily to get everyone out of the dark. Similarly, AT&T and other internet service providers are working to get their infrastructure repaired to get everyone back online.
Finally, as tough as this week has been for all of us, we also are seeing reports of Western North Carolina and know how much worse it could have been for us. While this does not negate the difficulties we have faced, that knowledge certainly provides some perspective. My prayers are with the people of Western North Carolina as they face this unimaginable devastation. Stay safe, and take care of each other. Continue to be Clemson, and we will get through this together.
Sincerely,
Mayor Robert Halfacre