HORRY COUNTY, SC (WBTW) – Flood-prone neighborhoods are bracing this weekend for something way too familiar: rising water levels.
Jeannie Mitchell and Tony Street have lived along the Intracoastal Waterway for 11 years, but their yard didn’t flood until about five years ago.
“It started happening in 2015 with the 1,000-year flood,” Mitchell said. “After that, it’s been continuous really.”
Hurricane Matthew came in 2016 and their yard flooded again, but a few weeks after Hurricane Florence in 2018, the Waterway got into their home.
“It took us a year and a half to rebuild after the time that it did get in,” said Street.
Socastee residents along the Waterway say their neighborhoods flood way too often, especially in the last several years. The National Weather Service says the water level was at around 17.2 feet on Friday. That’s about four feet above normal and nearly a foot higher than that October 2015 flood.
It’s expected to crest on Sunday about a foot shy of Matthew’s nearly 19-foot high mark and the almost 22-foot record set after Florence, but this flooding is happening in Socastee without a major tropical system.
“Hurricane season really hasn’t even started and this is crazy to be out here with 3 1/2 feet of water in my backyard,” said Mitchell. “We canoed down Smith Boulevard.”
Mitchell and Street say they want politicians to address what’s causing this flooding here and further upstream or they’ll move.
“There are a few candidates coming up on Tuesday (in the state’s primary) that say that they are going to be for the flood victims and for mitigation, and yet, they’re not here today,” Mitchell said. “They haven’t been here since this particular one started.”
The Waccamaw River in Conway is also expected to crest on Sunday. and the forecast calls for it to peak just barely under the major flood level of 14 feet.