COLUMBIA, S.C. — The City of Columbia saw around four inches of rain in an hour's time on Monday, July 4th.
That much rain caused Five Points, Martin Luther King Jr. Park, and several other areas in the city to flood.
Now Five Point shops are picking up the pieces left behind from the rain, but many places want answers to why this flooding keeps happening.
Howard Duvall, city council member says the city is working to fix the problem.
"The city council got together in 2016 we decided to do a complete $92 million bond to take care of the Storm Water capital improvement plans for the city of Columbia."
Duvall says several projects have already started to alleviate flooding, "We have completed some of these projects, the major event that we've gotten done so far is Martin Luther King Jr. Park which has a major part to do with Five Points, it's basically a large retention pond that delays the time of the water coming through the Rocky Branch drainage."
Kaykay Getz the owner of Loose Lucy's in Five Points had several items damaged from the 4th of July flood and isn't sure the completed project at MLK Park has solved anything in the area, "The six years I've been here there have been no changes, it floods like this a handful of times a year."
The city says it knows it's not an easy fix but one that will require several large projects that they are preparing for now.
Dana Higgins is the director of engineering for the city and said this about upcoming projects, "We have many areas throughout the city, we are actually evaluating a potential bypass system -- one line from Five Points down to the Congaree River. We are also concerned about Shandon. We have a lot of areas -- at six points over there -- and the water shed traditionally has major issues flooding."
Duvall said, "We're about at the $35 million level right now of the $92 million, we're about halfway -- maybe halfway -- through with the projects that need to be funded."
It will take several years to complete all of the projects the city plans to work on.