MYRTLE BEACH, SC (WBTW) – Flooding continues to be a big problem for neighbors living along the Intracoastal Waterway in Myrtle Beach.
Along the Intracoastal Waterway streets, yards, and mailboxes are underwater. So are some homes that were just cleaned up from October’s floods.
Water levels aren’t up everywhere along the Intracoastal, because certain areas are more influenced by the tides. In Socastee, however, the rising Waccamaw River means the levels will swell, affecting many homes.
The National Weather Service shows the Intercoastal Waterway has come up nearly a foot since Friday.
People who live nearby say flooding is a part of living by the water. They’re concerned because the devastating floods in October was a reminder of just how fast conditions can change.
“Right now we can still drive in. It hasn’t risen any since this morning so I hope that it will stabilize now. The only fear is that over the next few weeks we get a lot more rain and it’s going to go right back up. That’s the fear. Not today, but over the next few weeks,” said William Foster who lives on Ed Smith Ave.
His neighbor, Bud Chestnut, accepts the rising water. “I don’t think it’ll get too much higher. If it does, I’ve still got the bullet, I’ll bite it again.”
Chestnut is living out his boyhood dream of owning a home on the water, “it’s just life, for everything you gain, you sacrifice something.”
For 92-year-old Chestnut, that sacrifice has been dealing with flood waters. He just finished remodeling his first floor after the October floods, “and if it comes again, I don’t intend to run.”
In neighborhoods along the Intracoastal, flood waters are once again blocking driveways, covering roads and swallowing yards.
“We just got through painting and cleaning and getting my mother moved back in and here we go with a second flood,” said Steve Macklin.
Macklin returned to his home just three weeks ago, and now the water is back, too.
“Luckily I’ve got an upstairs, so I moved her upstairs and bought her a pair of rubber boots so she can get in and out of the house,” said Macklin.
Macklin did his best to set up sandbags, but in the end, all he could do was raise the furniture off the ground and set up a pump to get the water out.
“More than 750 gallons an hour to keep it out,” he said.
Though Macklin admits dealing with back to back floods is “starting to be a pain in the neck, getting old.”
He says the experience in October actually helped this time around, “very prepared, way ahead of the game this time. Luckily we got it under control.”
Meteorologists say if we do get more rain in the next few weeks, it could push water levels even higher.
