HORRY COUNTY – As the floods begin the slow setback process, the impact of rain in late winter has brought many emotions and concerns across the Horry County community – with areas separated by about 30 miles now allied in the never-ending battle with devastating floods that have shown their ugly face for the past 6 years.
Over the past week, residents have heard that FEMA is unlikely to help residents – because both the county and the state will not reach the limits of monetary damages.
Horry County would need to exceed $ 1 million in uninsured losses, while South Carolina’s uninsured damages generally need to reach $ 7 million for a presidential statement to be made to allow FEMA to assist in the process.
“Don’t think that FEMA will come to help with this,” said Randy Webster, assistant county administrator for public security.
FEMA’s absence will hold the county responsible for the costs and expenses of this flood event, with Webster indicating that the county is exploring low-interest loans from the Small Business Administration to help needy residents.
Johnny Gardner, chairman of Horry County Council, expressed that the council understands that the ongoing flooding obstacles in the area are becoming tiring for everyone, specifically mentioning the Socastee and Bucksport areas.
“There is a permanent solution needed for this; this is not the first time you have had this – it seems to be getting worse every time we have substantial rain, ”said Gardner. “We will do everything in our power to try to fix this. Rest assured, it is not a short process, everyone knows that.”
April O’Leary, president and founder of Horry County Rising and a member of the newly formed county flood subcommittee, said it was time for residents to make their voices heard.
“Citizens need to demand better flood protection measures,” said O’Leary. “And our employees need to aggressively pursue these measures. This is man-made. Unless our employees start investing in protective measures, this will continue to be tragic.”
As the floods increased last week, here is a trio of families who give a face to what is happening in the community:
Socastee: ‘Every time it rains, we have to worry’
When Mike and Carolyn Moore bought their oceanfront home along the Intracoastal Waterway in 2004 – a husband-to-wife gift – a flood zone had not yet been designated, nor was flood insurance necessary.
They traded a beachfront property in Myrtle Beach for the serene canals of Socastee, with their backyard gently touching one of the Grand Strand’s most popular bodies of water, complete with a renovated pier with a fan to keep mosquitoes away.
Go 17 years forward, and that same body of water did a series of expensive blows to the stomach, to the sound of eight floods over a six-year period on its Rosewood Estates property – an area now infamous rather than sought after.
On Friday, the Moores’ son, Mark, looked at more than a meter of water already in the one-bedroom apartment along the lower level of his house – a product of a slow rain that moved south, with the Intracoastal having not yet peaked until February 28th.
The last flood came when Mark Moore didn’t even have a chance to finish his room repairs with the floods of May 2020, an event that caused him to slip and hurt himself while trying to assess the damage caused by 35 centimeters of standing water.
“Whenever it rains, we have to worry,” said Mark Moore, indicating that the floods brought 15 to 1.5 meters of water into the house. “You can’t even imagine the amount of stress it causes you. Physical stress, emotional stress, financial stress. It’s exhausting.”
The financial difficulty for the Moores is significant, even with flood insurance, fulfilling a deductible each time – less than others because Mark and his brother, David, do most of the repairs on the house.
Add $ 8,000 in annual insurance – including $ 2,800 for flooding – and Mike and Carolyn Moore will be in an unenviable situation.
Both are 80 years old and have just celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary; they cannot afford to take a financial bath on their Rosewood property, they said.
“We have a lot of money wrapped up in that place,” said Mike Moore.
On February 25, Webster announced that federal acquisitions were still being considered for properties like that of the Moores, although no elements of time have been established.
For Mark Moore, the idea of a purchase does not go well, pointing to mostly working-class families in the Rosewood Drive community who cannot receive anything less than what they owe on their mortgages.
“If you want to pay the house’s debt so they can leave the house without debt, that’s fine,” said Mark. “But if they are going to offer cents on the dollar, most people will be trapped in their homes.
“Acquisitions are not a solution, it just kicks the problem forward.”
And while some in the community have successfully sold their properties at cost, the Moores are not confident that it will be the case now.
“I’ve never been so lucky,” said Carolyn.
Bucksport: ‘Such a painful situation’
For most of his life, Kevin Mishoe never knew what a flood was like in his neighborhood.
Even Hurricane Matthew.
Now, as he looks out over the water on Bucksport Road on Friday, nearly two miles from the Waccamaw River, he is seeing another flood.
“We always heard about the 1,000-year flood, but until Matthew, there had been no flood,” he said. “My first flood was five years ago, and we’ve seen one almost every year since.”
The Waccamaw River in Bucksport is yet to reach the crest and the water continues to rise. As of 2 pm on February 26, the Waccamaw in Bucksport was 23.03 feet away.
For Mishoe, the Bucksport community is different. He points to the home of a woman, whose father was an educator in the area. He looks next to his mother’s house, with water filling the front yard. And next to it is Mishoe Road, where he grew up.
“This is what makes the situation so painful,” said Mishoe. “You know each individual in this community by name … you grew up together, went to church together.”
Until Friday, the flood had not reached Mishoe’s home.
Mishoe said it is not so simple to sell your houses and leave.
“You have more than just brick and mortar structures,” he said of the close-knit community.
Nine people impacted by floodwaters took advantage of a Red Cross shelter at the James Frazier Center on Bucksport Road on the night of February 25. Half of Bucksport Road has been closed and submerged, with more than a dozen roads outside Bucksport Road also closed. according to the Horry County road closure map.
Bucksport community leader Mishoe said he likened the floods to a form of abuse.
“It is not just the hitting that is the problem, it is the long-lasting effect,” he said.
And there is no solution to the problem, he said, but a start would be Horry County officials cleaning up the ditch that runs through the community.
According to Horry County spokeswoman Kelly Moore, several ditches on Bucksport Road are cleaned annually, although about three cannot be cleared due to the county having no easements.
“Less than 3 percent of the drain is working,” said Mishoe. “And that is a problem.”
Socastee: ‘You take the good from the bad’
Mitchell Strickland can’t help but watch the waters along the Intracoastal Waterway rise, slowly advancing towards his property near Rosewood Drive, just outside Myrtle Beach.
It has a notch marked by a screw on the fifth rung of the staircase that leads to its large back porch overlooking the water – it indicates the height that the water rose during Hurricane Florence in September 2018.
It also brings back memories of losing his home during Hurricane Matthew in 2016 in exactly the same location, an emotional event that led him to build his replacement home 2 meters from the ground.
But the 73-year-old man refuses to complain, even with the floods already covering his nightstand and the chair that normally gives him a front row seat for beautiful sunsets.
“We choose to live here, you choose good over evil,” said Strickland as his neighbor monitored his already flooded pool, usually costing thousands to fix.
Strickland admits that while areas like California apparently deal with rapidly occurring natural disasters, life along the Grand Strand offers the opportunity to prepare, but it also forces residents to overanalyze the situation due to the waiting time of up to 10 days .
Fortunately, he has a boat hidden under his home – affectionately called “John” – that helps to keep his mind calm, as he and his wife can escape from their home for 20 years.
“This boat is my baby,” said Strickland. “We really don’t care about the rain that happens here, we are always paying attention to what is going on in North Carolina.”
Strickland is impacted to see his neighbors running, trying to move to higher ground, while also trying to save thousands of people by moving valuable items off the dangerous path.
He was not always immune to a similar fate, with reminders of storms passed around him, including watermarks in his garage that faces his property, with tables and chairs completely submerged during Mateus.
“It’s hard not to think, if you look at the neighbors, even the abandoned houses – we’ve all been heavily affected by the floods,” said Strickland. “But we have a community that will help each other.
“We have a community that wants to lend a helping hand.”