Removing debris, animals from roads is man’s job
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15K tri-county houses lose power during tropical storm
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Former Sumter County sheriff’s deputy Vic Jones shows off a blackjack, a defense weapon used by officers, that he was instructed to have made when he became a deputy in 1966. Jones is the 114th deputy to be sworn in at the sheriff’s office. Former county sheriff Tommy Mims, back, shared stories of his time as a deputy when officers did not have modern resources. Mims is the 103rd deputy sworn in at the sheriff’s office.
Former sheriff, deputy share how jobs were done in 1960s Communication difficulties, longer work hours, nightstick use common decades ago PHOTOS BY KEITH GEDAMKE / THE SUMTER ITEM
On Saturday, Damantris Thames, 7, surveys the damage done to the tree at his Henrietta Drive home during Tropical Storm Hermine’s pass through the state on Friday evening. The tree narrowly missed his grandfather’s home, a neighbor’s home and a new car but destroyed his trampoline.
New Jersey. Governors all along the coast announced emergency preparations. The winds and rain were so strong Saturday in North Carolina that all bridges to the Outer Banks were closed after a deadly wreck over the intracoastal waterway. Tyrrell County Sheriff Darryl Liverman told the Virginian-Pilot that high winds tipped over an 18-wheeler, killing its driver and shutting down the U.S. 64 bridge. And on Hatteras Island in the
Before the establishment of South Carolina Criminal Justice Academy and Miranda vs. Arizona, life as a Sumter County Sheriff’s Office deputy was very different compared to today. Former sheriff Tommy Mims, the 103rd deputy to join the agency, was sworn in in September 1965 at 25 years old. He said his first bit of training came from Sheriff Ira Byrd Parnell, who told him to use common sense, keep his nose clean and do his very best before sending him out to start working. Vic Jones, former public safety director for Sumter, became a deputy at 21 years old in late 1966. After he was sworn in, Sheriff Parnell told Jones to carry his pistol, a .367 Magnum, on his belt and to keep his personal shotgun in his vehicle. Jones was later told to go to Reliable Pawn to find a badge with the word “deputy” on it. He purchased a small badge for $2.90. He also continued to wear civilian clothes for a while after he was sworn in. Officers were later instructed to attend courses called Crime to Court, but there was no criminal justice academy, Jones said. It was a different time, Mims said. Back then, deputies had to buy and furnish their own vehicles, he said. The vehicles were equipped with twoway radios with two channels, antennas about 8 feet long and handheld spotlights, he said. Jones said deputies were given $75 for gas, vehicle maintenance and insurance. That money went by pretty quickly when officers had to chase suspects, he said. He said deputies had a lot of investigations involving moonshine traffickers. When Mims and Jones first joined the sheriff’s office, there were only about 14 deputies, making community policing difficult. And there were only two night-shift
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Residents say drains aren’t being maintained after Sunway Knolls floods again BY KONSTANTIN VENGEROWSKY konstantin@theitem.com More than 15,000 homes in Clarendon, Lee and Sumter counties lost power Friday as a result of Tropical Storm Hermine, which swept through the area Thursday night and ended in the early hours of Saturday morning. As of 3:30 p.m. Saturday, about 1,500 customers were without power. About 1,300 of those were customers of Duke Energy, and about 200 were customers of Black River Electric Coop. Power was estimated to be restored by this afternoon for all residents. Sumter County Emergency Management Director Erik Hayes said an
Homes in the Sunway Knolls subdivision like this one on Sassafras Drive saw water reach near their front doors once again during Tropical Storm Hermine on Friday evening. emergency operations center was opened in the county on a “limited activation” on Friday. It included members of the city and county law enforcement, fire department and government employees. Hayes said sections of about a dozen roads in the
county were flooded. Trees were reported to have fallen on several houses, without major damage to those buildings, he said. Parts of Sassafras Drive, in the Sunway Knolls subdivision, were flooded with about 2 feet of water Friday, accord-
ing to residents. Robert Compton, a resident, said water had flowed from the road into his yard. Compton said the drainage systems in his neighborhood were not being properly maintained. Part of that neighborhood is in a flood plain, and 13 houses received major damage in the October 2015 flood, he said. “We had water up to our chest last October,” Compton said. “We’ve lived here for six years, and it’s a major problem every time it rains.” Bet Morgan, who lives several blocks from Sassafras Drive, said some of the houses had water up to their doorsteps, and one resident’s porch
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Hermine kills 2, ruins beach weekends in its northward march BY JESSICA GRESKO The Associated Press Tropical Storm Hermine regained strength Saturday as it moved slowly up the Eastern Seaboard and made a mess of the holiday weekend. Hermine already caused two deaths, damaged property and left hundreds of thousands without electricity from Florida to Virginia. It also spawned a tornado in North Carolina. “This is not a beach weekend for anyone in the Mid-Atlantic to the
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northeast,” said Eric Blake, a hurricane specialist at the National Hurricane Center in Miami. Hermine rose up over the Gulf of Mexico and hit Florida on Friday as a Category 1 hurricane before weakening across Georgia. By 2 p.m. Saturday, Hermine’s top sustained winds had increased again to 70 mph as it moved east at 10 mph. The storm was centered 90 miles east of Duck, North Carolina. Tropical Storm Warnings were in effect as far north as Connecticut, with dangerous storm surge expected along the coast from Virginia to
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