CONWAY, SC (WBTW) – Horry County wants to have control of millions of dollars of federal flood relief money, but the state says that won’t happen.

The county says it already has a system in place to get money to those who need it, but the state denied that request.

Courtney Kain is the director of Community Development in Horry County, and she says they’ve already made initial inspections a drafted a list of people who still need help after the October flood.

“We’ve seen a lot of people have to move from their homes, and they’ll stay with relatives,” said Kain.

She says they’re ready to help get those people the help they need.

“It’s just working with the state to see how we can best access the funds for our residents,” said Kain.

Horry County Assistant Administrator Justin Powell says the county is a “Community Development Entitlement Community”, and that gives them everything they need to distribute those funds from the state.

“We have the staff to do the inspections, we have the staff to do the intake, we have that list of people. So, I think we would be able to help people move faster and get that money faster in the community to make a better good,” said Powell.

Other entitlement communities like Columbia, Lexington, and Richland County got permission to distribute their funds, but the state denied Horry County’s request.

“Columbia, Richland, Lexington without a doubt were more substantially hit by the damage from the flood. However, they’re similar organizations to us. They have the capabilities to manage their funds locally, and we wanted to make it known that we have the same capabilities here,” said Powell.

In the letter of denial from South Carolina Disaster Recovery Program Manager Jeffery Sanderson lists a couple of reasons why Horry County was denied. He says the additional administrative costs on the subrecipient level could reduce the amount of money for the flood victims, the processing time for the county’s application could cause further delays for those needing money, introducing another level of program administration could cause problems, and the program wants to maintain consistency.

Right now Horry County leaders do not have a timeline for when the state will distribute the funds, and at the time of this article, News13 had not heard back from the South Carolina Disaster Recovery Program members.

If you still need flood assistance, you’re asked to call The Horry County Community Development Office at (843)915-7033.