An aerial photo of flooding along the Edisto River after Tropical Storm Debby hit South Carolina in early August 2024. (Provided by Charleston County Sheriff’s Department)
MONCKS CORNER – The gray brick house with the big backyard was the dream home Justin Strickland and Mackenzie Truitt had been looking for.
It had plenty of space for their young daughter Jade to play as she grows and for the family’s three dogs – Mya, Cash and Bailey – to run.
During their search, they had toured a different house before settling on the one in the Conifer Hall neighborhood southwest of Moncks Corner. That other home, their real estate agent told them, was in a flood zone. This one was not.
At least not one deemed “high risk” by the Federal Emergency Management Agency that maps floodplains across the United States and oversees the National Flood Insurance Program, serving as the primary underwriter of flood insurance nationwide since the late 1960s.
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But when Tropical Storm Debby dumped more than 20 inches of rain over four days last month on Moncks Corner — making not one, but two passes across the Palmetto State — the couple would find out the hard way about their home’s true flood risk and the confusion that federal flood zone designations can create.
The government requires borrowers who take out federally backed mortgages for homes in high-risk areas to buy flood insurance to cover damage.
The cost of those annual policies depends on estimated rebuilding expenses. Almost half of South Carolina homeowners with federal insurance pay less than $1,000 annually. About 30% of homeowners pay between $1,000 and $2,000 for a policy, while 10% pay between $2,000 and $3,000, according to FEMA data for single-family homes as of August 2023.
Homeowners who aren’t in a zone deemed high risk can choose to pay for flood insurance but aren’t required to add the coverage to get a loan. For those who don’t, storms can bring a very costly surprise.
“A big part of it is the flood map is not a complete picture of flood risk,” said Jenny Brennan, a climate analyst for the Southern Environmental Law Center. “It doesn’t tell us the full story, partly because the methods that are used to create those maps are a bit out of date.”
“(The maps) don’t consider stormwater flooding in the way that they should,” Brennan continued. “So, in reality, we’re seeing places that flood often that are not mapped in those flood zones at all.”
It’s an issue that led the environmental legal advocacy group to work with the South Carolina Real Estate Commission to add questions to a form mandating sellers disclose if a property has flooded, whether public or private flood insurance claims have been filed, whether residents received flood disaster assistance or if repairs were previously made due to flooding.
It went into effect in June 2023 and was meant to provide extra protections for buyers like Truitt and Strickland.
Their neighborhood is south of Lake Moultrie and west of the Cooper River but miles away from either.
Truitt said their Federal Housing Administration lender told them they weren’t in a flood zone when they closed on the sale in June. And the answers to questions about flooding on the disclosure form they received from the sellers, who county property records show owned the home for only a year, did not indicate any past issues, she said. They would have purchased the added insurance but thought they were in the clear.
Caught unaware
In the month or so that Truitt and Strickland lived in their new home, they grew used to water pooling in the ditch in the front yard on a rainy day.
When Strickland left home early for work on Aug. 6, the water had crept across the yard, not quite reaching the front porch.
He remembered seeing sandbags left by the previous owners in a shed in the backyard. The couple hadn’t known why the bags were there. Now they were placing them around their home.
“It really looked like there was a river in the backyard,” Truitt said.
By Aug. 8, the sun had come out and the couple’s daughter played outside while they cleaned up the sticks and leaves the storm had washed up.
But Debby wasn’t finished.
Strickland and Truitt put their daughter to bed around 8 p.m. Sometime that night, the rain resumed. They woke to banging on their door at 1:30 a.m., a neighbor coming to get them. Truitt stepped out of bed and into water that came almost to her knee.
About 5 miles away, in the Cane Bay neighborhood of Summerville, flash flooding alerts flashed across the phones of Erin Strauss and her husband. They didn’t think anything of it.
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“We grew up in Walterboro, so we’re both pretty familiar with what South Carolina weather can do, especially during hurricane season,” Strauss said.
Besides, since moving into their Summerville home in May, none of the neighbors had mentioned any flooding issues. Neither had the real estate agents. And flood insurance wasn’t required on the property.
But it had happened before, in 2015, when Hurricane Joaquin soaked parts of the state with 2 feet of rain.
As Strauss’ husband left for work in his lifted truck last month, the water came up to his door jamb. The streets wouldn’t fully clear of water for about five days.
The floodwaters never reached Strauss’ home or yard. She said the builders did a good job of grading the land so it all flowed to the street.
But others weren’t so lucky. Strauss said several residents living in newer homes in the back of the neighborhood, where there’s a lake, made social media posts about water in their homes.
In all, the storm prompted 40 water rescues in Berkeley County, according to a county spokesperson.
Damage done
Back in Moncks Corner, Strickland and Truitt have spent the last few weeks ripping out flooring and drywall on what had seemed to be the perfect place to make their family home. Their furniture, their appliances, about half their clothing is all ruined.
They had only been in the home long enough to make one mortgage payment. Now they’re living with Strickland’s mother.
Without flood insurance and with no federal disaster declaration as of yet opening up federal aid, Strickland and Truitt are left to rebuild out of pocket.
They’re far from alone.
The latest data show the number of subsidized federal flood policies sold across the state has actually decreased, despite rapid development in many parts of the state and a series of destructive storms since 2015.
Just 199,324 households in South Carolina carry national flood insurance policies, or about 8% of all residential properties around the state. That number fell by 2,600 compared to a year ago, according to a monthly spreadsheet from FEMA.
Meanwhile, the Southern Environmental Law Center estimates nearly 210,000 South Carolinians live in flood-prone areas.
Strauss said she and her husband aren’t likely to purchase flood insurance on their Summerville home despite the flooding brought on by Debby.
“If it only happens once in a blue moon, I’d almost rather take the risk or pay out of pocket for repairs, especially with the high cost of insurance payments,” she said.
The federal flood program is not without its issues, said Brennan, the climate analyst.
It’s a system that’s designed to put things back the way they were before, rather than rebuild in a better way, she said. It doesn’t cover the cost of lifting low-lying homes on stilts, for example.
“But then again, it’s better than having nothing,” Brennan said. “We have to have some sort of backstop for people. Some people can cut their losses and rebuild. But most people can’t afford to lose their most significant investment, their home, and still be able to recover.”
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Flood insurance carriers tend to pay out claims much faster than federal disaster recovery.
Seeking solutions
The governor’s office said damage assessments will continue over the next two weeks before the governor decides whether or not the state will apply for federal assistance. So far, only three counties — Dorchester, Colleton and Charleston — are being considered for individual assistance for homeowners.
The federal flood insurance program also makes it hard for people to get information on the flood history of a home, said Nick Kremydas, CEO of South Carolina Realtors.
Privacy laws only allow buyers to request the information after closing on a home. And even then, many don’t know this is allowed, he said.
The Southern Environmental Law Center hopes the state-level real estate disclosures help ensure information is more readily shared. Homeowners who are aware of past flooding and purposely do not disclose can be sued for damages.
Strickland and Truitt said they and some of their Moncks Corner neighbors are hoping for a more permanent solution from Berkeley County to their drainage issues.
“I love my house,” Truitt said. “If the problem was fixed I would love to keep my house but I want the problem changed.”