MARION, SC (WBTW) – A Town Hall meeting was held by the Marion County Long Term Recovery Group and South Carolina Disaster Recovery Office on its efforts to rebuild and repair homes destroyed during Hurricane Matthew.

The meeting was standing room only with hundreds of Marion residents crowded in a room to listen and ask questions.

Deputy Program Management Director of the Marion County Long Term Recovery Group, Benjamin Duncan, said the group has made more progress in rebuilding and repairing houses than any group in the state.

“Hurricane Matthew affected 24 counties,” Duncan told the crowd at the meeting. “Two of the 24 counties were designated ‘Most Impacted Counties’,” he continued. “Those two counties were Marion County and Horry County.”

Duncan said the state received $95 million to assist residents in all 24 counties.

“3,900 people applied for this program,” he explained. “The CDBGDR, Community Block Development Grant Program through HUD [U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development] which is disaster recovery funds.”

Duncan explained the program in detail, and said a case management team was a part of the program for those who needed assistance outside of money for a house.

“If they needed a refrigerator, or if they needed clothes, or food,” he said.

Duncan said residents were given a 90-day period in May to apply for the assistance program, and also given a 49-day application completion period after that, but now, people can no longer apply.

“We worked another 140 days to solidly make sure everybody had their paperwork in,” he explained to the group. “We worked extremely hard during those 140 days to get the information in, to make sure that people who wanted to apply had the opportunity.”

Duncan said the group has faced challenges when it comes to rebuilding homes.

“If a home needs to be replaced in a flood plain, we have to elevate that home,” Duncan said. “For a mobile home, we cannot elevate that home more than five feet, seven inches so we’re running into problems there because some of them have to be six, seven, sometimes up to eight or nine feet.”

Duncan explained that the guidelines are from FEMA and HUD. 

“We are having issues with duplication of benefits,” he said. “What duplication of benefits are; if you received $1,000 from FEMA, and then you applied for this program, and we tell you it’s going to take $15,000 to repair your home [then] we may not be able to repair it,” he continued. “Not unless you come up with that $1,000 or show that you’ve done $1,000 worth of repairs in your home.”

Cynthia Gore lives in Nichols, and said like most in the room, her home enduring both the 2015 flood, and Hurricane Matthew in 2016.

“I had water damage underneath basically,” Gore told News13. “My floors were soaked. Very soft floors. I was thinking that all of the floors were going to be taken up,” she said. “Because now after the contractor’s done and finished I still have soft floors.”

Gore said she appreciated the help, but has had issues with the contractors hired by the state.

“I just wonder who’s watching the contractor, and the workers that are under the contractor, and the subs, and the subs, and the subs,” said Gore.

Gore was out of her home for several months while it was rebuilt, and worked on by the volunteers and state workers. She said she moved back into her home last week.

“Things are better, but they’re not back where they were,” said Gore. “I may be looking too futuristic, but I think if they can’t get it to that point [then] at least get it more safe than what it is, because eventually I feel that the floors are just going to give away.”

Gore said, overall, she was grateful for the information she received at the Town Hall meeting, but still has worries about the future of her home.

“I wanted to get some more information on the beginning of the program, what the program entailed, and what would be done,” she said. “They answered a lot of the questions, but there were still some questions that went unanswered.”

Duncan and other members of the Marion County Long Term Recovery Group answered individual questions from community members after the meeting, and asked everyone for patience.