NEWINGTON, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) – A warning has been lifted for Screven County neighbors. Dam that was about to burst under pressure from The deluge of Tropical Storm Debby.
Late Friday afternoon, Eureka Road, which runs over the causeway, was reopened, but only to residents, including several who were stranded on the other side of the dead-end road.
This is a sign that life in a county that has been plagued by mud and dirt all week is returning to some normality as the floodwaters recede.
It must come as a relief to people living around the Eureka Road dam near Newington, who were put on alert and told to evacuate when the dam began to crumble under a deluge of double-digit amounts of rain early Thursday.
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But on Friday afternoon, the Georgia State Emergency Management Agency lifted the alert after crews worked day and night to repair the dam. For two days, truck after truck brought in dirt to fill the gaps in the dam.
Late Thursday night, the teams were finally able to take a break as they were in a good spot.
They returned around 7 a.m. Friday morning to start over and brought down three more truckloads of dirt.
Soon after, it became apparent that the dam was safe.
“They’ve been working all night for the last few days,” said Terry Bloom, who lives on Eureka Road. “They saved the dam – that was the main thing.”
A local resident showed us his garden, which was simply an extension of the lake. It has a bridge that is normally over the water, but on Friday only the raised end of it was visible.
A neighbor said he has lived in his house for 30 years and has been coming to the area for over 50 years.
But he had never experienced anything like this week.
He said the dam had broken before, but there was never any danger of flooding.
Much of Screven County is still in chaos following the floods.
Screven County Emergency Management Agency officials flew up by helicopter on Friday to take a look.
They said they had never experienced anything of this magnitude before and the biggest challenge was getting the resources and supplies needed to fix the problems.
“It’s something you can’t prepare for,” said Harvey Cryder, director of the EMA. “Our biggest complaint in our county is dirt roads, and of course they wash away. … There are problems with dirt roads, and we do our best to maintain them.”
The flooding was so severe that important paved roads were washed away.
“You can’t prepare for this,” he said.
County officials are trying to secure grants for reconstruction efforts. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has not yet intervened in the county, but likely will.
Cryder noted that all state roads in the county had reopened by Friday afternoon.
The Georgia Department of Transportation plans to have the remaining roads open by August 15.
What isn’t helping is that people are walking away and taking the orange bins used to block roads with them, and officers are begging people not to do this.
The closures include a bridge on Old Creek Road.
Residents reported on Friday that the bridge had been under water for two days. And on Thursday, you could lean over the side and touch the water.
By Friday, the water level had receded, but state inspectors still had to come and make sure the bridge was safe.
Many people used boats to get home, leaving their belongings soaked.
Officials say reporting damage to the Screven County Emergency Management Agency is critical to timely and effective disaster relief. People must email their name, phone number, address and a description of the damage to their property, as well as pictures or videos, to [email protected].
The damage affected not only property but also livelihoods. According to state agriculture officials, the floods destroyed some crops, including peanuts in Screven County.
Although the floodwaters had largely receded by Friday, the situation was still very serious at the time the waters arose.
Even the Georgia National Guard sent troops to help after Governor Brian Kemp mobilized about 300 soldiers and airmen across the state.
In addition to Screven County, they also helped in Bulloch, Pierce and Wayne counties with operations ranging from clearing and repairing roads to transporting relief supplies in flood vehicles.
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