Thousands of hours: Overtime cost Horry County millions during Hurricane Florence

During the flood following Hurricane Florence, Horry County’s employees were working around the clock. And with all that work, comes a lot of overtime.

Horry County employees racked up 80,000 hours of overtime during the period of Hurricane Florence and the resulting flood, according to a Freedom of Information Act request made by The Sun News.

During the period of Sept. 1 through Oct. 12, the overtime cost the county $2.1 million. While not all of the hours logged went directly to the flood effort, public safety officials made up for a vast majority of the total hours and payout.

Emergency Medical Services department filed more than 19,000 hours, the fire department logged over 16,000 hours and police had over 17,000 hours of approved overtime. The overtime from these three departments cost over $1.4 million, over half of what the county paid.

The aftermath of Florence required county staff to work extra hours in making sure residents were safe and that damage was minimized as flood waters rose. These efforts included responding to emergency calls, helping traffic flow and manning road closure blockades.

The 911 communications staff filed more than 4,000 hours of overtime for a payout of almost $117,000.

Beyond public safety, other departments filed hundreds of hours of overtime. The public works maintenance team logged 2,000 hours, costing $59,000. The animal care center filed 1,000 hours of overtime.

During times of emergency, it is expected that operational costs will go up in the recovery effort to make sure employees are paid for their labor. The county fronts this cost initially, but it can submit the overtime expenses to FEMA.

Horry County spokesperson Kelly Moore said that the numbers for Florence-specific overtime have not been complied yet, these numbers include all filed overtime from the period. Overtime that was not for the storm effort will not be reimbursed by FEMA.