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Dam fails in Hopkins, no injuries

A dam near Mt. Elon Church Rd failed, flooding the nearby neighborhood.

HOPKINS, S.C. — Residents in a neighborhood in Lower Richland County are dealing with the aftermath of a small failure. 

It happened near the intersection of Mount Elon Church and Blue Johnson roads which is a few miles off Leesburg Road.

“It sounded like Niagara falls,” Cynthia Wilson, a 20-year resident on Mt. Elon Church Road.

A dam near Wilson’s home failed. 

Herbert, Cynthia's husband, said he noticed a problem on his way to check the mail.

“I saw something shiny over there and going across the road so we went back in the house," Herbert Wilson said.

The Wilson's then called the Williams' who said they haven’t had issues with flooding since 2015.

“Outside the 100-year flood no, just the 100-year flood. That was our biggest drainage issue. Our yard had it the most between our and our next-door neighbors," Andre Williams said.

Both the Wilson’s and Williams’ shared concerns about a further impact on the surrounding community. The dam is on private property.  According to DHEC the dam failure didn’t endanger any lives, but it did impact other ponds.

“There’s a small unregulated dam there on the corner of Garners Ferry and Blue Johnson it was experiencing high flows as well. It was managing the flows fine without any risk of failure," Julie Stewart with DHEC said.

The department is still working to understand what caused the dam to the brake.

“In this one we’re trying to piece together what the exact cause was but certainly our staff will be working with the owner to truly know what the mechanism of failure was," Stewart said.

The department says there was no danger to the public or significant damage.

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