Gills Creek Watershed dams overcome, tested by rainfall

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FOREST ACRES, S.C. (WOLO) — With no power, 40-plus year Forest Acres resident Hemphill Pride, III came down to Trenholm Plaza to find out if he needed to go. “I’ve got an 80-year-old mother and I don’t want to rush her, but at the same time, you gotta go when you gotta go,” Pride says. Pride did not live in one of the 500 households that was forced to evacuate Monday afternoon. Officials ordered the evacuation to residents on Overcreek Drive and nearby streets, after the Overcreek Bridge Dam broke. A couple miles downstream, they also closed the stretch of Forest Drive that crosses Gills Creek by Trenholm Plaza. The creek, swelling over with all the extra water from the dam, threatened to knock out the bridge. “We see this happening in the rest of the country, in low lying areas, but never anything like this here,” Forest Acres Mayor Frank Brunson says. Forest Acres Chief Gene Sealy says at least three dams have breached in the Gills Creek Watershed. Spring Lake Dam is at risk of breaching. He says debris, as large as pontoon boats and boat houses, floating down from other broken dams is putting immense pressure on the Forest Lake Dam. As the objects fill up the spillway, the water rises. “And as it adds more pressure, it could pop any time,” Chief Sealy says. He says they’re watching it closely. “If that were to happen, we need to move up the hill pretty quick.” The additional water would head downstream from the Forest Lake dam to an already maxed-out Lake Katherine. That’s a huge problem. “You’re talking thousands of homes if you follow the Gills Creek Watershed.” Even if you have not been ordered to leave your house, if you live south of the evacuation zone to Lake Katherine, Chief Sealy has a suggestion. “We would encourage them, if they’ve got another place to stay for a day or two, that would be great, just as a precaution, because again, we don’t know. There are more dams that could break. We just won’t know.” Forest Acres asking you to be safe, rather than sorry, so it can rise above the flood waters, and rebuild.