CONWAY, SC (WBTW) – Some Horry County leaders say the area may never fully recover from the damage caused by Hurricane Matthew.
Tuesday, at the Horry County Infrastructure and Regulation Committee meeting, county leaders saw new numbers from the destruction left behind by Matthew.
Thirty-five Horry County buildings were damaged, one thousand county roads need repairs, and nearly all of the dunes along the beaches were destroyed.
County Spokesperson Lisa Bourcier says they still have a long way to go in recovery.
“We’re still in crisis mode. We still have hundreds of people who are still not in their homes.”
Horry County employees have logged more than 12,000 hours since the hurricane to rebuild the community.
“Not only do we have government needs and repair work through our infrastructure, our buildings, but we also have utility work, bridge repairs, and we also have individuals that are dealing with their personal needs as well,” said Bourcier.
Right now, crews work to clean up storm debris in Socastee, and they hope to have the first sweep of the county finished by November 15th. They estimate about 150,000 cubic yards of debris to clean up. That trash could fill about 46 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
“There’s so much of this stuff that needs to be picked up. We’re going through zones, we’re starting in the worst hit area. They did an aerial survey of the worst hit areas and said okay let’s schedule the trucks to get the worst hit areas first,” said Chairman of the I&R Committee Johnny Vaught.
Thanks to public assistance from FEMA, that cleanup, employee overtime, and emergency repairs will be reimbursed, but only if it’s documented.
“They always tell you document, document, document. We have a lot of our staff that solely is responsible for making sure that we keep adequate records so that we can be reimbursed for it,” said Bourcier.
Right now, the county is working to find out the best way to rebuild the dunes.They plan to start working on the beach access spots Wednesday.