Richland County holds public meetings to gather residents’ flooding input

Residents affected by the historic October 2015 floods are invited to offer input that will help Richland County plan for future natural disasters.

The Community Input and Recovery Project is a series of six meetings to gather feedback from residents. The meetings are scheduled Jan. 19-23 throughout Richland County. Public input from the meetings will be used to compile a technical report that is specific to the County and will include strategies for mitigating – or lessening – the effects of future flooding.

The community input meetings will include interactive mapping stations, questionnaires and opportunities for residents to submit comments and share information about their experiences. Residents are encouraged to bring photographs and other information to document recent, as well as recurrent, flooding in their communities

Information from these meetings will be used to develop a flood mitigation study of Lower Richland and the Gills Creek and Stoop Creek watersheds. Input from residents is crucial to helping County officials move forward with planning.

Lower Richland and communities in the two watersheds are considered priority areas. The Gills Creek Watershed is the main watershed flowing through the city of Columbia. The Stoop Creek Watershed is primarily in the St. Andrews area, in the northwest part of the County.

County staffers are already collecting high water mark and debris data in these areas to develop flood mitigation plans.

Representatives of Tetra Tech, the County’s disaster recovery contractor, will lead the community meetings and compile data to supplement information provided by County staff to help build an inventory of where flooding occurred and the extent of damage suffered by residents, businesses and property owners.

Meetings for the Community Input and Recovery Project will be held as follows:

• 5:30 p.m.-7:30 p.m.
  Tuesday, Jan. 19
  St. Andrews Park
  920 Beatty Road, Columbia
• 12 p.m.-2 p.m.
  Wednesday, Jan. 20
  Gadsden Park
  1668 Goodwin Circle, Gadsden
• 12 p.m.-2 p.m.
  Thursday, Jan. 21
  Bluff Road Park
  148 Carswell Drive,  Columbia
• 5:30 p.m.-7:30 p.m.
  Thursday Jan. 21
  Trenholm Park
  3900 Covenant Road,
  Columbia
• 5:30 p.m.-7:30 p.m.
  Thursday, Jan. 21
  Hopkins Adult Activity Center
  144 Hopkins Park Road, Hopkins
• 12 p.m.-2 p.m.
  Saturday, Jan. 23
  Eastover Park
  1031 Main St., Eastover