Sucker punch or leadership failure? Helene damage sparks rift over Beaufort’s readiness
The city of Beaufort’s preparation and response to Helene — the tropical storm that battered the region late last month — is being publicly criticized by the former mayor.
Stephen Murray, who resigned as mayor a year ago, says current Mayor Phil Cromer’s leadership was complacent and “could kill someone” next time.
Cromer described the storm as a “sucker punch” whose severity caught him and the city by surprise.
Cromer blames Murray for having an agenda behind his criticism, “to get me out of office.” “Everything was directed to me personally as mayor,” he said.
Murray said that blaming politics is a convenient way for Cromer to escape taking responsibility. In bringing his concerns forward, Murray said, he was asking “my mayor to do his job.”
Did the city fail to prepare and respond?
Now the city is evaluating where it can improve its preparation and response going forward.
At a City Council work session Tuesday, Sept. 27 a review of the city’s storm’s damage was placed on the agenda by City Manager Scott Marshall as a result of sizable public feedback to the city.
In that work session, Murray appeared as a resident and alleged that Cromer failed to:
- Communicate the possible severity of the storm with residents
- Ensure ‘life-safety priorities” were met first during the cleanup
- Advocate for the city during power outages with partners like energy provider Dominion Energy
Murray said he decided to share his concerns publicly because Hurricane Milton was, at the time of his remarks, within striking distance of the city and because of his dissatisfaction with Cromer’s response after the two had a private conversation.
According to Murray, Cromer’s response was; “This storm caught everybody by surprise,” while dismissing the former mayor’s concerns and blaming Dominion Energy.
How could he be surprised? Murray asked about Cromer, when tropical storm winds were forecast by the National Hurricane center for days and warnings were posted on the city’s own social media accounts?
“Mr. mayor, I think an appropriate word instead of surprise would be complacent,” Murray said.
Murray noted that other mayors across region prepared cities for the impending weather event by sharing personal messages on social media telling residents to prepare. According to Murray, those same mayors also requested city staff to ready public assets for the worst. He was surprised that he didn’t hear anything directly from Cromer before, during or after the event on any of the city’s communication channels. Residents need to hear from their mayor in time of crisis, Murray said, and “you were nowhere to be found.” The only direct message to city residents Murray claimed he saw about the storm from the current mayor was on candidate Cromer’s campaign page two days after the storm.
Cromer: ‘That’s not true’
Cromer countered that he was in communication with City Manager Marshall and Dominion Energy throughout the storm and also spoke with Gov. Henry McMaster.
Cromer said he spent the storm driving around town with his wife doing what could be done to get power restored.
“Sorry you didn’t think I didn’t care about the community,” Cromer said. “That’s not true.”
Cromer said that when he went to bed Thursday, Sept. 26, the last information he received was that the storm was going to be mainly a rain event with some wind gusts. “We kind off felt we were going to dodge a bullet.” Instead, “we basically got a sucker punch,” with the tornado warnings going off and winds picking up in the middle of the night.
“The good thing is you learn from this thing so no chances are taken the next time around,” Cromer said.
During the meeting, Murray implored Cromer to heed the weather warnings in the future, work better with regional partners and to come up with a better communication plan.
“We were lucky to not have any fatalities during this storm, Murray said, “but your complacency very well could kill someone next time.”
Resident concerns sparked the discussion
City Manager Marshall said to council, “I know you all had constituents who were calling you and had concerns relayed to you.”
The severity of the storm hampered the response from utility providers, Marshall noted. In turn, restoration of power was protracted and caused dark traffic signals. Also, trees became entangled in power lines.
The discussion came as another storm, Hurricane Milton, was, at the time, bearing down on Florida before its expected to push north and brush the coast of South Carolina. Milton ended up being a non-factor in the Lowcountry.
Marshall noted that’s exactly what everybody thought would be the case when Helene hit Sept. 27 and ended up leaving trees, beached boats and power outages in its wake.
While the forecast for Helene called for 25-35 mph winds with gusts up to 60 mph, actual winds were sustained at 45 mph and gusts hit 75 mph, according to the city’s report on the storm effects. In addition, three tornadoes were verified in the county. Rainfall was 2 to 5 inches compared to the forecast calling for 1 to 2 inches.
The aftermath included 40 downed trees blocking roadways. Traffic lights went dark, Marshall said, and thousands of residents were without power, some for days. Storm surge pushed the Beaufort River out of its banks, causing dock and structural damage to the city marina leaving nine boats beached in the marsh abutting Bay Street. Storm surge covered Waterfront Park on the edge of the river. One tree was lost and multiple trees suffered salt intrusion.
Did the county share in responsibility for storm response issues?
One problem in the response noted by Marshall was that Beaufort County did not fully stand up its Emergency Operations Center for this storm. In the future, Marshall says, the city should consider standing up its own city emergency operations center if the county’s is not fully activated. Centralized reporting and the tracking of hazards, outages and blockages is important, Marshall said.
He wasn’t trying to pass the buck, Marshall said, but “I think that was the big missing link in the storm.”
County officials said the operations center was partially activated.
Col. Neil Baxley, Beaufort County’s Emergency Management Division Commander, said the center was staffed with personnel within the division but not with the 60 people that would come with a full activation. The storm, he said, “didn’t warrant full activation.” However, the number of employees available to respond to storm-related issues including deputies and dispatchers was increased for the storm, just not the number of people who would man desks at the operations center in the event of a full activation.
Sheriff P.J. Tanner said the county had multiple phone calls with mayors and fire chiefs to make sure everyone had the necessary information from the National Weather Service.
“The EOC was operational,” Tanner said.
Murray: ‘You can do better’
Murray said his beef wasn’t with police, fire or public works crews that responded to Helene but with what he described as Cromer’s seeming lack of prioritization of “life-safety” issues versus aesthetic cleanup during the recovery.
Cromer, he said he was told, was more interested in cleaning up his neighborhood and getting city ready for the Shrimp Festival than ensuring life-saving priorities were accomplished first. As an example, he said a public works crew cleaned up unobstructed but debris-strewn roads in a private gated community on the Friday after the storm. Meanwhile, hazardous limbs hung precariously over Craven Street with no barricades while kids road bikes under them and trees completely blocked roads in the Mossy Oaks and Pigeon Point neighborhoods as late as Sunday afternoon, Murray said.
“You can and should do better,” Murray said.
A tree in the gated community was cleaned up because it was blocking a road and it involved an easy fix, involving only a simple cut to clear the tree from the street in case emergency vehicles needed to pass, Marshall said.
Nate Farrow, the city’s Public Works director, said that local crews could not touch trees that fell down on power lines because of the electricity danger. That may have caused some residents to think the city wasn’t taking action but in those cases city crews “can’t touch it” and must wait for energy providers, Farrow said.
Marshall says the city needs to do a better job communicating with the public before storms on how road clearing is prioritized “and that fallen trees cannot be removed if entangled in lines.”
Murray also said the city could have done a better job making sure that dark intersections with no traffic lights were well marked with signs and cones.
Intersections were a concern
The city should have been better prepared even if the storm did hit harder than was originally thought, Councilman Scallate said. A place where residents could go for resources, like a phone charge or a shower, should have opened sooner, Scallate added. Eventually, the city did arrange a place where residents could get phones charged. Scallate worked with a church to open its doors to residents. In many ways, Scallate said, it was volunteers who stepped up to fill that gap.
“My frustration is not at all political, Scallate said. “It’s just frustration. We’re a 300-year-old city on the coast. We should have a better plan for emergency operations regardless of whether the county stands up its EOC or not. If the county doesn’t, we have to activate our own.”
Councilman Mike McFee said the storm simply was worse than expected. The city can discuss setting up its own emergency operations center in the future, he said, but “I would rebut criticism that our staff didn’t respond.” Everywhere he went, the city was out in force responding to the problem areas, McFee said.
‘Can’t take chances’
In hindsight, Cromer said, the city was caught shorthanded and a more coordinated effort is needed across the county. Dominion Energy crews, he said, were expected to be on standby for Milton, which began moving into the region on Thursday, he said.
“We cant take any chances with anything coming near us,” Cromer said.
This story was originally published October 10, 2024 at 4:16 PM.
