![]() In the city of Conway, locals took action even earlier. (of) not knowing the location (of) floods." FLOODS 'EVERY YEAR' "We don't want anyone coming here and have an experience. "There's a lot of misinformation out there about flooding,” said Horry County council member Orton Bellamy. The county also launched an app to give residents and prospective homebuyers a better idea of the risks they face. ![]() If we could do this everywhere, I would recommend it." "This is a pretty pro-development, red county that enacted some of the most sweeping flood reform regulations (in the) state of South Carolina - if not the East Coast. "These maps tell a great story," said Robert Young, a professor at Western Carolina University whose research helped lay the groundwork for the new flood risk zones. They also introduced rules requiring new homes in flood-prone areas to be 3 feet (0.91 m), rather than 1 foot, above flood levels - a notable move among 'red' or Republican communities, frequently skeptical about climate change.Ĭounty officials say the new maps and regulations will help promote flood-resilient buildings and development and provide residents with more reliable information ahead of future floods. Officials in Horry County - a conservative area - created their own flood zone maps that took effect last year and showed expanded risk areas, rather than relying solely on FEMA, which is nationally responsible for dealing with disasters. Floyd, Charley, Bonnie, Fran, Joaquin," said O'Leary, as she sat with her neighbor Frances Thomas and they tried to recall which storm had forced Thomas to evacuate from her home. Homes outside areas that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) saw as being at high risk of flooding have been repeatedly hit by rising waters as climate change brings more frequent and intense storms.Īround the world, governments are struggling to anticipate and respond effectively to fast-evolving climate-related risks like flooding and wildfires. O'Leary was proven right: Florence deluged hundreds of homes in supposedly lower-risk spots in Horry, according to the county, turning streets into streams and causing millions of dollars in damage that wiped out the savings of some households. "They all told me that they didn't think they were going to flood - they were not going to make any preparations," recalled O'Leary, who founded the group Horry County Rising after Florence hit to advocate for greater action to combat flooding. Residents in the city of Conway, in Horry County, pointed to past experience with storms as reason not to worry - and for many, national flood maps did not show their homes were at high risk. Local officials create their own flood maps, rulesĬONWAY, SOUTH CAROLINA - As Hurricane Florence tore through the southeastern United States in 2018, April O'Leary raced to warn hundreds of her South Carolina neighbors to protect their property from coming floods and consider evacuating.Homes outside federal floods zones deluged.Climate change fueling more intense storms, floods. ![]() disaster agency FEMA and are drawing up their own. The campaign also reflects the National Hurricane Center’s (NHC) decision to separate the association of storm surge inundation from the category of storm.As climate change drives more intense storms and floods, some coastal districts are no longer relying solely on risk maps from U.S. The Know Your Zone campaign was developed as a result of the information contained in the South Carolina Hurricane Evacuation Study (HES) for the Northern Conglomerate that was released by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) in 2012. Know Your Zone is a public education campaign to inform the citizens and visitors of Horry County of the new hurricane evacuation zones and their vulnerability to storm surge. Horry County’s Emergency Management website has guides that make the zones clear, and they also have an interactive map where you can put in your address and find your zone and evacuation route. Henry McMaster announced Sunday that residents in Zone A of Horry County should evacuate the area starting at noon Monday, but many viewers aren’t sure which zone they live in or how to evacuate if they are in Zone A.
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