HORRY COUNTY, SC (WBTW) – County crews are in the process of assessing damage from last week’s flood event.

So far, around 100 properties have been assessed. Crews observed everything from water in yards to flooding inside of homes.

County spokesperson Kelly Moore said assessments began earlier in the week and are ongoing.

“As those water levels go down, that’ll give them access,” she said. “There are still some places where they aren’t able to access because the roads are flooded.”

Homeowners can self-report damage here.

“The more data we have about this storm, this event, or any other event that’s impacted your property adversely is really helpful to us to be able to build those long-term resiliency strategies,” Moore said.

Moore also wanted to make clear that assessment teams will not be going into homes.

Meanwhile, councilman Tyler Servant said he’s looking upstream for possible triggers to last week’s flooding.

“This dam up the Pee Dee River releases this amount of water and a few days later, residents of Rosewood are flooded,” Councilman Servant said. “It just doesn’t seem fair to me this dam in North Carolina is overflowing and the residents of Rosewood are having to pay for it.”

He is referring to the dam at Blewett Falls Lake outside of Rockingham.

Servant cites a hydrograph from the United States Geological Service taken near Blewett Falls.

It appears to show a large spike in the amount of water discharged in the area of the site between Feb. 5 and Feb. 7.

The hydro-station at Blewett Falls is owned and operated by Duke Energy. It does not have spillway gates.

“They are not able to lower the water levels of this dam before storms come through meaning we’re at the mercy of weather,” Servant said. “And unfortunately that can have devastating impacts for people downstream.”

Duke told News13 in a statement decisions to move water are based on many things including federal regulations.

It added it takes great care to manage its lake systems, and feels it acted appropriately as it dealt with the rainfall earlier in the month.

Horry County staff is set to complete an investigation on this matter and will report back to council in March. Count on News13 for updates.

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