Residents of two communities in Bennettsville returned to their homes Tuesday afternoon, a day after a dam breach forced evacuations at Lake Paul Wallace.
State and local officials gathered at the site of the breach Tuesday to assess next steps. According to Sully Blair, chairman of the Lake Paul Wallace Authority, flooding was “always a possibility” where the lake meets the Richardson Park and Shady Rest neighborhoods – themselves two low-lying neighborhoods so flood-prone that they have compelled the state to offer residents’ buyouts for their homes over the years.
Blair said that the breach was likely the result of “a slow erosion that happened on the back side of the dam.” That erosion led to a weakening of the dam structure until it “opened up” around 5 p.m. Monday.
Blair said a state official checking on the site Monday warned that a breach was coming soon, and that officials tried to head it off.
“We opened up the main valve to try and relieve pressure here,” Blair said. “Fortunately, we were able to minimize flooding. There was zero property damage to report, zero injuries to report.”
Bennettsville Mayor Leith Fowler, who had made repairing and improving the dam his main campaign issue last year, said “we dodged a big bullet,” considering how minimal the damage was. But he said that now that a breach has happened, he will be working with state officials to get the site back open, “better than before.”
Fowler praised the response of local and area emergency crews, which evacuated “between 15 and 30” residents from the flood’s path before anyone got hurt.
There is no estimate when the road beside the dam – which is structurally compromised now – will reopen, nor a dollar figure on what it will cost to bring the site back to operational.
Officials on-site Tuesday said it would be “a while” before the site is repaired. Officials added that the dike in Lake Paul Wallace was structurally sound.
Water levels at the lake are expected to be low for the foreseeable future.
