COLUMBIA, S.C. — As we get ready for the rains to pass through the Midlands, some northeast Richland County residents have already been dealing issues from flooding over the weekend.
“It’s always a temporary fix,” resident Gena Dow said.
Dow lives in the Kilian Road area, she says neighbors are constantly contacting the county to get their road fixed.
“County comes out here and puts a band aid on everything and a lot of times when they come out here and make a repair, the repair has made the problem worse, such as continuing to scrape roads to smooth them, you're continuing to take the level of the road down and then some of that dirt you know fills in the ditches,” she said.
On Saturday the Midlands experienced heavy rains, leaving residents in the area without power, downed trees and severe flooding. Residents in the Killian Road area say this isn't anything new for them.
“We have problems like this when we have a steady rain for over a period of time. It's not what everybody refers to as the 1000 year flood. it doesn't take that for this to happen to us,” Dow said.
South Carolina Department of Transportation (SCDOT) crews were out making repairs on parts of Kilian Road Monday. Some roads are completely shut down, while others are operating on one lane of traffic.
“The roads are definitely a concern. we have widows, we have elderly folks, we have people that just had a kidney transplant and so our concern is that if anybody around here needs any assistance, emergency services will not be able to get to us,” Susan Strothar said.
Strothar also lives in the area, she says with Debby set to hit the Midlands, residents are concerned.
“It is extremely unsettling not knowing if the dams are going to hold. If that doesn't hold water is going to go absolutely everywhere and cause catastrophic loss. If the roads aren't passable and we have an emergency here, that's our top priority concern," she said.
Residents say there is only one way in and out of the neighborhood, leaving water with no where else to go but their yards and homes.
“There's really not a whole lot that we can do you, we'll have a vehicle on the other side of the road up at Killian to be available if we have to walk through and get to that vehicle but other than that that's the only kind of preparations that we'll have,” Strothar said.
Residents have brought this to the attention of the county council members, who tells me they are working to repair the issue.
“They’ve started doing those things, but it's a very massive task and so it does take some time. You've got a SCDOT involved as well as Richland County involved and so we're working together to to move as quickly as possible in this process, but you know, it's like everything else until it's in your back door. you wanted to hurry up and happen now,” Richland County Councilwoman Gretchen Barron, said.
News 19 reached out to SCDOT who says crew have been out preparing areas that they know typically flood. Those preparations include cleaning out drainage ditches and trimming limbs that may be in the roadways.