It takes less than a tropical storm to impact this neighborhood
WAGENER, S.C. (WRDW/WAGT) - For most people in the CSRA, any flooding they saw happened Wednesday as Tropical Storm Idalia moved through.
For the Swartz family and their property in Aiken County, flooding started on Tuesday.
Dirt roads turned into a creek with water flowing down into their property, making it difficult to use roadways nearby.
MORE FROM NEWS 12:
- CSRA’s small towns have big storm damage – and bigger hearts
- ‘God’s on our side’: CSRA residents begin cleanup after Idalia
- Tropical Storm Idalia heads out to sea as Florida, Georgia clean up
“It doesn’t take but about six-tenths of an inch of rain to wash this road out,” said Tommy Swartz. “It’s chest deep ditches up there on the upper end and about knee deep all the way down here to the bottom, just ditches no way vehicles gonna get through.”
“It’s aggravating. You gotta make a trip five, six miles out of the way to get back over and around,” he said. “And, you know, I know the county’s working to try to patch it but I mean, we’ve been getting Band-Aids for over a year and a half now, and we need to we need to fix.”
County officials say they’ve invested $30,000 to $50,000 to look for answers months ago.
But the Swartz family still has questions as to why they had flooding a day before when it wasn’t even the worst of it.
Neighbor John Bess said: “When we get a little bit of rain, it’s a problem, but when we get several inches of rain like this, it’s devastating. It has completely devastated my wetlands and it’s destroying my property. And every time it rains, I wonder: When is somebody gonna do something about it?”
For Bess, he has memories of fishing in ponds and wetlands with family. The dirt now has destroyed these areas in his yard he says.
“I do get emotional about it. My children have enjoyed this stream and it has been a part of our life ever since we’ve lived here. It’s just a shame and it literally makes me sick. It’s completely filled in the wetlands,” said Bess.
Aiken County says they are looking for the permanent solution. They’ve put $700,000 dollars aside for funding to pave the road to better control the flow of water.
Currently, they have surveyed the area and are in the design phase. There is no timetable for how long it will take to design, but once the design is done the county will immediately bid the project for construction.
Copyright 2023 WRDW/WAGT. All rights reserved.
