Clean up begins in Walterboro after Helene

WALTERBORO, S.C. (WCBD) – The city of Walterboro expects to recover after high winds rolled through Thursday night and Friday morning.

Tropical Storm Helene brought multiple tornado warnings into the night and early morning in Colleton County. So far, there have been no reports of the cyclones touching down. However, it left a path of destruction for residents and city crews.

“We’ve had a big mess here,” Bill Young, mayor of Walterboro, said. “It’s going to be a lot to pick up with limbs and debris, pine straws – things in the road. We can recover from this debris and damage done by limbs and leaves – things like that.”

Colleton County officials say there are over 80% of residents that still do not have power. Dominion Energy and Coastal Electric are the companies that serve that area.

“Dominion has told us this will be a multi-day process to get the power back on,” Young said. “They didn’t say how many days, but normally they are really quick and we’re back up and running in a day or two.”

Since midnight, the Colleton County Fire Rescue picked up and responded to calls. Most of them include electrical and wind damages. No injuries have been reported.

“Currently, we have about 265 reports of damage,” KC Campbell, public information officer for Colleton County, said. “To give you an idea of that, Tropical Storm Debby we had 305. So, it was a county-wide event really.”

In Walterboro, it was an all-hands on deck situation. City crews were sawing down trees that blocked the roadways and brought down power lines, while neighbors picked up their own yards. Some even were using leaf blowers and their own machines to move debris.

Out of safety, responders hope residents will stay on the side of caution and remain at home until there is an all-clear.

“Even though right now it’s nice and sunny with a little breeze – it’s blue skies,” Campbell said. “We really don’t want you out traveling. We have debris around. We have workers that are out there. By you being out there on the roads, it’s going to delay them trying to clear them.”