Parts of Richmond Hill still flooded a week after TS Debby

UPDATE: Thu., Aug. 15, 9:22 a.m.: ADDS link to county’s daily list of roads open and closed

CORRECTION: Thu. Aug 15, 8: 56 a.m.: Richmond Hill’s mayor is Russ Carpenter

UPDATE: 6:04 p.m.: ADDS estimate of at least 270 homes affected by flooding

UPDATE Wed. Aug 14, 4:09 p.m.: ADDS list of closed streets in Richmond Hill

The Live Oak subdivision is holding its own, although floodwaters have invaded many residents’ homes.

Bryan County Emergency Services Public Information Officer Nicholas Beard said the county has yet to fully assess the number of homes damaged by flooding from the Ogeechee and Canoochee Rivers, as many areas remain flooded as of Wednesday, but that at least 270 homes have been affected to some degree.

On Wednesday afternoon, the City of Richmond Hill announced 19 roads are still closed as of 3:30 p.m.:

• 1st Street
• 2nd Street
• Buford Cook Drive
• Butler Drive
• Camellia Street
• Canyon Oak Loop
• Carter Street
• Chestnut Oak Drive
• Clark Street
• Forest Street
• Kennah Court
• O’Hara Drive
• Perry Drive
• Plantation Boulevard
• Rosemont Street
• Rushing Street
• Savannah Lane
• Scarlett Lane
• Sue Ellen Lane

The city says it “will update this list as we receive information on roads reopening from public safety.”

You can check the county’s list of road closures, which Beard says is updated at least once a day, at http://tiny.cc/3h0hzz (we’ve shortened the link for easier sharing). Click on the street name to see a map of where the road is affected.

One week after Tropical Storm Debby lollygagged through Coastal Georgia, the Ogeechee River is still covering all lanes of Georgia Hwy. 17. The river is just about 3 and a half miles from where Maureen McDermott was running an ad hoc command center outside the subdivision, flagging down drivers before they drove through the thigh-high flooding and directing crews unloading sandbags.

“I can tell you, in the back of the neighborhood, it’s about five to six in one area and about 10 feet deep in the next area,” McDermott said. “So there’s a lot of people back there who have lost everything. So we’ve been pulling people out. We’ve been bringing food to them.”

Residents grabbed slices of pizza from a stack of boxes at one end of the table. Stacks of bottled water and sports drinks sat under the pop-up canopies, alongside kayaks that volunteers had been using as makeshift ferries.

McDermott lives on Wilmington Island, but works for Veterans United Home Loans. “I was raised in the military, and I’m a mortgage loan officer, and we’ve closed a lot of the veterans that live up here,” she explained. “So when this happened, I’m part of a kayak group, and we knew that they would need the kayaks, and we put a word out for all our kayakers, and they’ve been bringing sandbags in, they’ve been pulling people out — It’s just been, it’s been a huge success.”

She said the operation is a “100% volunteer effort,” delivering food door to door, including for people with special dietary needs, “and we’re taking kayaks and boats and big trucks….And we’re just doing what we can, either pulling people out, or bringing them back and forth for work, back and forth to school, doctors appointments. So it’s just between all the neighborhoods. It’s been a huge volunteer effort.”

SLIDESHOW

Flooding persists in Richmond Hill

The Richmond Hill Fire Department and Port Wentworth Police also delivered food to residents trapped by the floodwaters, where bacteria are growing in the nearly-100-degree heat and stagnation. Leeches, snakes, alligators, hazardous chemicals, and sunken objects also pose dangers to people wading or coming in contact with the water.

Early in the storm, volunteers with kayaks had converged on the parking lot at First Baptist Church on Ford Avenue. Some posted on Facebook that they had been turned away or that they had left after no one gave them any direction on where their services were needed. Then, flooding pushed the Ogeechee out of its banks, swamping the parking lot and nearby low-lying residential side streets like Forest, Rushing, and Clark streets.

Rushing Street appears to be the hardest hit, according to GEMA’s Damage Assessment map. People report damage to the county and GEMA, which passes it on to FEMA, explained Kevin Fischer, field appraiser for Bryan County. Fischer said the Ogeechee was receding, and that it might be Friday before county officials could get a good look at some of the damage.

“Carter Street, First and Second Streets, Rushing Street,” were some of the hardest hit, Fischer said. “Mulberry was, but it’s not anymore — like Gregory Park, around there, and Richmond Place they were — they are still flooded, but they’re not in any homes that he’s seen, a few garages, but not really any homes.”

As the county comes to assess each property, it might lower that property’s value. Fischer added that the flooding will “probably” increase insurance rates in the area.

In a Facebook post, Richmond Hill Mayor Russ Carpenter wrote, “The waters are receding in many areas, and with each passing hour, we’re inching closer to normalcy. Richmond Place and Mulberry floodwater levels steadily drop. White Oak and Live Oak – relief will come as the Canoochee River finds its way back to its natural course. Once we can deploy our pumps without impacting other areas, those pumps will be working non-stop to help drain those flooded communities.” He praised the community’s spirit and said the city was lucky that no one had died in the flooding, “not even a beloved pet.”

To report storm damage to your home or business, visit the Georgia Emergency Management Agency’s Damage Assessment page at https://damage-assessment-gema-soc.hub.arcgis.com/

To apply for federal disaster assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, visit https://www.disasterassistance.gov (para solicitar ayuda federal por desastre en español, visite https://www.disasterassistance.gov/es ; FEMA offers additional language assistance here ).

To check daily road closures in Bryan County, visit http://tiny.cc/3h0hzz .

In Richmond Hill, you can call for non-emergency help at (912) 756-3749.

Volunteers can call (912) 756-2196.

People who want to drop off non-perishable food items, water, and essentials can do so at New Life Church, 16252 Georgia Hwy. 144.