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Town manager outlines response to Tropical Storm Debbie, proposes sandbag program and dashboard upgrades
Summary
Town Manager Mr. Orlando briefed the Hilton Head Island Town Council on Tropical Storm Debbie response, citing pump-station operations that moved roughly 441 million gallons of water, about 5,700 Palmetto Electric customers temporarily without power, and 75 staff after‑action items including a possible sandbag program and improved emergency dashboard.
Town Manager Mr. Orlando told the Town Council that Tropical Storm Debbie began affecting Hilton Head Island on the evening of Sunday, Aug. 4, and that town staff and interagency partners mounted a rapid response to flooding and outages. "We inspected critical components of the town's drainage infrastructure," Orlando said, and staff stabilized facilities, removed beach furniture, performed wellness checks, and cleared blocked outfalls with South Carolina Department of Transportation crews.
The manager provided several operational figures: Palmetto Electric reported three outage events affecting roughly 5,700 customers; the town's pump stations (Lawton, Jarvis Creek and Wexford) ran a combined total of about 161 hours and pumped an estimated 441,000,000 gallons of water. He said those systems prevented more extensive flooding in many neighborhoods and credited rapid coordination with Beaufort County and SCDOT for restoring flow at clogged outfalls.
Why it matters: the presentation framed immediate recovery actions and the near‑term programmatic work the town plans to pursue. Orlando said staff compiled more than 75 after‑action items and recommended several next steps, including evaluating a sandbag distribution program to fill local gaps in resources and creating a public-facing emergency‑management dashboard so residents and officials can see real‑time incident and service information.
Council members pressed staff on specifics. Orlando said the town contacted Beaufort County after learning county sandbag availability did not extend to Hilton Head Island and described the need for a formal partnership to secure local sandbag access if the council approves such a program. He also outlined plans to improve coordination and situational reporting, promising a daily situational report and a dashboard for council and the public.
What’s next: staff said they will continue compiling after‑action items into an implementation list, evaluate sandbag logistics and responsibilities with Beaufort County, and present proposed dashboard functionality and any needed budget or operational requests to the council in subsequent meetings.
