CONWAY, SC (WBTW) – The city is expected to receive even more flooding over the next several days and the fire department is getting outside help to battle the floods.
Thousands of sandbags are filled and tied at places like at Sherwood Forest Park. The bags are ready to try and stop flooding after Hurricane Florence, but the city’s fire department needs more than sand.
It needs as many firefighters possible helping all over the city.
“Due to the way the flooding happens in Conway, sometimes we have a lot of access issues for the stations throughout town,” said assistant fire chief Jeremy Carter.
That’s why departments from Myrtle Beach, North Myrtle Beach, Pawleys Island and Georgetown County are bringing in crews to work in Conway’s three stations.
“So we do the upstaffing and basically make them self-supportive, so we can still provide the emergency service coverage we need,” said assistant fire chief Carter.
Those extra trucks and other equipment will add more coverage to the areas of Conway expected to flood or have already flooded.
“Just preplanning and having a strategy that if you have to go,” assistant fire chief Carter said. “Just knowing your area helps you to get there quicker.”
The National Weather Service says its Waccamaw River gauge in Conway is already at major flood stage Thursday.
It was already about two feet from Hurricane Matthew’s record level of almost 18 feet in October 2016.
“We may have water in areas that we haven’t had water before,” said assistant fire chief Carter. “We’re just going to have to stand by and see what we have with the inundation of water that we have coming at possible historic levels.”
By Tuesday, the Waccamaw River in Conway could reach 21 feet. That’s more than three feet higher than Hurricane Matthew and ten feet above flood stage.
