CONWAY, SC (WBTW) – Dozens of residents may want to knock down their flood-damaged homes and sell the property to the city.
John Keller and his wife bought their home on Long Avenue in 2014.
“It was our dream home and our retirement home when we purchased it,” Keller said. “It had everything we wanted.”
Keller says he wasn’t told his home had a history of flooding from the Crab Tree Swamp near the Waccamaw River.
“I know it’s been underwater once before, but it was never documented for me to find,” he said.
It flooded after Hurricane Matthew in 2016, but Keller fixed it up.
Hurricane Florence’s flooding last month brought several feet of water into his home.
“I think the combined total of both Matthew and Florence is going to actually make FEMA say that it’s time to tear the house down,” said Keller.
After Matthew, Keller applied for FEMA’s flood mitigation program. That’s when FEMA gives money to states and local governments to buyout repeatedly flooded properties from homeowners.
Keller says he hopes the program will get him the money to build somewhere else in the city.
“If I can get my value out of it, I would just assume not pinning this on someone else,” Keller said.
A city spokesperson says 11 more homeowners have expressed interest in the FEMA buyout program after Florence. About 60 got appraisals after Matthew.
Keller says he hopes his home is appraised for what he’s invested in it.
“I hope they’re fair with me,” he said. “That’s all I can ask.”
FEMA typically provides three-quarters of the money for a property buyout. States work with local governments to pay for the rest.
Horry County says the flood mitigation programs haven’t begun for Hurricane Florence damage yet.
