Charleston Is a Flood Magnet, and the Cost of Flood Damage Will Rise | SERVPRO® of Downtown Charleston

1/29/2022 (Permalink)

There’s good news, and there’s bad news. The good news is that Charleston is growing. New development is being added, and new families and business are finding the historic city a charming and pleasant place to call home.

The bad news is that Charleston is a flood magnet, and that’s unlikely to change. Much of Charleston’s new development is being carried out on land that’s particularly vulnerable to flooding due to the combined rise of sea levels and the fact that the land itself is already at a low elevation.

Flooding is an annual risk in Charleston. It’s been a problem throughout Charleston’s 300+ year history. The combination of various elements create a perfect storm for flooding in our area.

Charleston is low, and it’s getting lower. Our relative sea level has risen by almost a foot in the last 70 years, and now we find ourselves faced with an accelerated pace of sea level rise—it’s gone up an inch every two years for more than a decade now.

Charleston residents are well-acquainted with “sunny day floods,” where king tide levels fill the streets with water even when no rain is occurring. The city’s elevation and proximity to the rising ocean combine with the flatness of our landscape to ensure that those occurrences aren’t going away anytime soon, not to mention our increased vulnerability during thunderstorms and hurricanes.

The annual cost of flood damage repair was an average of $17 billion between 2010 and 2018, and that cost is expected to rise by an incredible amount—more than an estimated 60%—over the next three decades.

According to recent research, many homes in South Carolina that find themselves at risk for flooding are not actually accounted for on FEMA’s flood plain maps, which help the federal government determine whether homeowners will be required to purchase flood insurance with a newly acquired home. The number of at-risk properties estimated by FEMA maps may undershoot the actual number by an incredible 70%. This means more houses need to be covered by the National Flood Insurance Program, which means premiums will have to rise.

The predicted promise of both rising tides and rising costs could mean any number of things for Charleston residents, from real estate inflation to increased, mandatory insurance costs.

That part of the future remains to be seen. But what is clear is that signing up to live in Charleston means an inherent risk of flooding that seems to be increasing more rapidly than any time in our record-keeping.

It’s incumbent upon us to do everything we can if we want to protect our homes, families and indeed our city from future devastation from flooding.

If flooding or other water damage should cause a crisis in your home or business, we’re here to help. Contact SERVPRO to see how we can get you back in the dry.