By Betsy Finklea
The Dillon City Council held a special meeting recently to discuss the impact of Hurricane Matthew on the city.
Mayor Todd Davis said everyone learned something. He said this was no doubt the worst hurricane that people in Dillon had seen in 30 or 40 years.
Davis commended all of the city crews for their efforts during and after the storm.
Davis said the city lost a lot of equipment. The city street department shop flooded with three to four feet of water.
One of the biggest problems faced by the police department was people getting stuck in the road. A great deal of communication and dissemination of information took place over social media.
Many stores on Main Street were flooded, and the theatre was flooded.
They discussed how they would move forward with the clean-up.
An initial estimate was that the city had about $1.5 million in damage.
Burt Rogers, head of the street department, discussed the damage that the department suffered. Rogers said every piece of equipment got water damage. After hearing Rogers’ report on the state of the equipment, the council approved a motion to purchase a knuckle boom loader.
Hardy Jackson, head of the water and sewer department, spoke about how his department fared the storm. He said Perdue loaned the city a generator to run the treatment plant. There was a sinkhole on Deerwood. He said they need to look at getting generators and a portable generator.
Chief David Lane spoke about the police department. They lost five police cars. They also had a problem with communication due to no backup power.            
Chief Keith Bailey talked about the fire department. His truck suffered water damage. They assisted on a number of rescues.
Editor’s Note: To watch this meeting, visit www.thedillonherald.com or watch the video on The Dillon Herald’s channel on YouTube (searchable under Johnnie Daniels).