EASLEY - A long line of emergency responders from across the state parked in a Pickens County lot on Thursday as Ken Roper, the county's administrator, noted that local residents are still picking up debris and helping neighbors.
He said this weekend, a week from the storm, will see a shift from immediate needs to a long-term effort.
Anyone who needs help or has questions about resources, donations or volunteering can call the Pickens County storm call center at 864-774-9743.
Roper urged people to connect with churches or civic organizations like the Rotary Club or United Way of Pickens County to continue to help.
"A lot of community organizations like this will become more and more important as we move out of the response phase and into the recovery phase," he said Thursday.
Pickens County has begun to shrink some official distribution sites, a distribution center at the Pickens County Airport closed up on Thursday night with the leftovers going to local groups.
One of the county's three primary distribution centers, the Clemson location, is open until 5 p.m. Friday but will close afterward due to low traffic, said Jamie Burns, a spokesperson for the county.
Distribution centers:
Clemson University (141 Pendleton Road, Clemson)
Dacusville Fire Department (2509 Earls Bridge Road, Easley)
Pickens County Building Maintenance Complex (1507 Walhalla Highway, Pickens)
A major shelter at Glenwood Baptist Church is still going strong, the roughly two dozen people sheltering there have been through some of the worst, said the church's pastor Robert Fowler.
At least one person had a tree fall and kill a family member and others were rescued with dramatic water rescues in a raft, Fowler said, showing a video of the rescue.
Fowler said people are still coming to the shelter, a week after the storm, some are just learning of the options.
“They’re coming and going,” he said.
A few more people a just called and are on their way to the shelter, Fowler said, on Thursday afternoon.
”We opened Friday and we never lost power,” he said.
The shelter is being supported by the Red Cross, FEMA and state officials as well as the county and several local churches, Fowler said.
The storm is easily the worst disaster to the hit the county in decades, said Julie Capaldi, who has led the county's United Way for 25 years.
"We thought COVID was bad," she said. "I thought I had seen it all and this was devastating."
She said one of the biggest challenges is housing the many people who were displaced, unable to move back for weeks, months or maybe not ever.
"Housing was an issue anyways," Capaldi said.
So far the region's response has included helping people needing oxygen to get power and people needing insulin to get ice, getting generators donated and working with churches and business and governments to get showers, meals and access to stranded areas, said Rep. Neal Collins, a Pickens Republican.
He said there is much left to do: Getting power back to the 20% of residents who are still lacking and connecting residents to assistance programs.
"Some of the infrastructure damage will take months to repair," Collins said. "But we're committed from the local to state to federal level."
FEMA relief
Pickens County has qualified for FEMA disaster relief, which will allow residents to submit claims for home or property damage.
"But it's not just 'fill out a simple form,'" Capaldi said.
The applications ask for a lot of information, and items like receipts and photos can help.
The Hendricks Firm in Easley will be open from noon to 3 p.m. Saturday to help residents navigate the complex application process.
Back to school
The School District of Pickens County is planning to be back to full-time school on Monday, although there may still be challenges for the bus route and the potential that many students and staff could be unable to make it, said Darian Byrd, a spokesperson for the district.
"We're fortunate, compared to others," he said.
Students will be given "extreme grace" in the coming days and weeks as they will get more time to finish up nearly a week of e-Learning assignments, often without electricity, Byrd said. Teachers and administrators are well aware of the challenges and will work generously with students, he said.
Byrd said about 20% of the staff was unable to make it in on Friday when they were recalled for work, and they cited various storm-related issues, including injuries and outages, but many of those staffers said they'd be able to come by Monday.
All of the school buildings have power and water, which is necessary for schools to resume, he said.
Byrd said district drivers have gone over the full bus route, creating a detailed record of remaining problems: About 90 roads were not bus-passable as of Thursday afternoon, he said.
For those not driving a bus, the roads are in better shape.
Roper said the county began, post-storm, with 216 affected roads and now there are 14 closed roads, with eight of those being fairly easy to clear once the power lines are cleared so tree crews can do their work.
But there are still many roads with some obstructions, "82 are passable but not clean," Roper said.
Those roads have gotten a first pass of cleaning and may be only one functioning lane, he said.
About 80% of county residents have had their power restored, according to a Friday update from the county. More than 750 people have received water and MRE rations through the county.
The East Pickens Baptist Church's emergency food supply center closed Thursday, sending its remaining donations to other local groups.
Roper asked that people at the county's three distribution centers pick up water and supplies only for local residents because some had been collecting supplies to take to Western North Carolina.
Roper said it was a noble effort, but the county is working in other ways to support the more heavily hit areas while keeping the county-obtained supplies here for now.
Roper said part of the recovery will be accepting help, which can be difficult for his "hard-scrabble Appalachian" county.
"We know in times past we've been proud to send our swift water rescue teams to other parts of the state, to send our firefighters and emergency management personnel," Roper said.
Now, it was time for Pickens to ask for help and the help has arrived.
Roper said one of the best ways is for people to keep helping each other through the local charities and distribution drives.
Contact Mike Ellis at mellis@gannett.com or 517-267-0415
This article originally appeared on Greenville News: Pickens County: Moving into recovery a week after Helene