Water World: Socastee, South Carolina — Soda Citizen

Photos and words by Sean Rayford

Kyle Guilbault has lived in Rosewood Estates in Socastee, South Carolina for about four months. “The water came up the first month I was here. It didn't get this high, and then a couple days ago, it just came up and out of nowhere. It's shit. It sucks,” he says, standing in floodwater on Feb. 25.

Kyle Guilbault, right, and Joshua Brown use a paddle boat on Roseewood Dr. Feb. 25, 2021 in Socastee, South Carolina.

Sandwiched between the Myrtle Beach Airport and the Intercoastal Waterway, Socastee sits about five miles north of the waterway’s confluence with Waccamaw River. The Pee Dee River joins the mix another few miles downstream.

In the last month, 6-10 inches of rain fell in the area — about 2-3 times above the seasonal average. As a result, Kyle and his neighbor, Joshua Brown, are on their fifth and sixth trips with a borrowed paddle boat — evacuating dogs, valuables and essentials.

Joshua Brown stands in his front yard on Roseewood Dr. Feb. 25, 2021 in Socastee, South Carolina.

“It helps that the neighbors are friends — and we work together. Me and him work together everyday. It’s just another task that we have to complete,” Guilbault says.

Back at Brown’s home, during the next trip with the boat, and standing in ankle deep water, Brown recalls his checklist. They still have to come back for the pet reptiles.

“You got all your stuff sitting up high in the camper, correct?” asks Brown.

“As high as I could get it. It’s touching my frame,” says Guilbault, referring to the floodwaters in his driveway.

“That's fine, it can touch the frame. But you still got about another foot before it goes,” says Brown.

A resident updates a sign in his yard along River Rd. Feb. 26, 2021 in Socastee, South Carolina.

Devyn Ward is accustomed to feet of snow — not feet of water. Ward and her mother moved to Rosewood Estates from Colorado less than two months ago. Their home is elevated but surrounded by floodwaters.

When they bought the house they didn’t know about the problems. Last week they traded in their passenger cars for trucks — and bought kayaks to get in and out of the neighborhood.

Devyn Ward, right, and Jonathan Galvas paddle on Rosewood Dr. Feb. 26, 2021 in Socastee, South Carolina.

Ward plans grocery store trips around the weight limits of the kayaks. With seven cats, kitty litter alone is 38 lbs. For the moment, her boyfriend, Jonathan Galvas, is here and can help, but he still lives in Colorado.

“I'm gonna have to walk the kayak back today because I have to get a thing of dog food and that's not gonna fit with us in the kayak. Tomorrow is gonna be a whole other adventure because we are gonna have to take a kayak with [Jonathan’s] suitcase with his Xbox in it, to get to the truck to get him to the airport,” says Ward on Feb. 27.

On March 3, she says there is still a foot of water on Rosewood Drive.

Rosewood Dr. Feb. 26, 2021 in Socastee, South Carolina.

Oscar LeRoy has been flooded eight times at 5900 Rosewood Dr.

“You've got all these rivers t-boning into the Intercoastal Waterway and it's got nowhere to go except Little River and Georgetown.”

He built a walkway on cinder blocks from the house door to the end of the driveway for his dogs and family. He can still drive his Jeep on the flooded street, but he’s not parking in the water. And as the water rises, he is forced to park further away from his house.

Oscar LeRoy stands in front of his home on Rosewood Dr. Feb. 26, 2021 in Socastee, South Carolina.

“It’s kind of sad. It's a nice little neighborhood. It was a real great neighborhood but now it's getting depressing.” he says, “It’s too much water.”

He blames new development, resulting deforestation, and officials for failing to address the problem.

David Cunningham moved into his home on W. Oak Circle in the neighborhood just upriver from Rosewood Estates on July 28, 2018. In less than a month his home was flooded with four feet of water from [Hurricane] Florence. No one told him about the flooding and he didn't have flood insurance.

David Cunningham stands in front of his home on W. Oak Circle Feb. 25, 2021 in Socastee, South Carolina.

“This is your classic example of modern greed in Horry County. They issue building permits to a known flood zone. The National Weather Service has said this has been a flood zone for years, but in Horry County… they are building houses and they are giving permits,” says Cunningham, “They just built two brand new houses on the street over by the river.”

“We're all trying to get out, but what are you gonna do? Nobody wants to buy. Would you buy a house like this? No. So, we're stuck. I'm sitting on a $220,000 investment and somebody wants to give me $100,000.”

“It didn't flood from 1999 to 2015. Suddenly, in five years we are flooding. And the development around Myrtle Beach has just quadrupled in that time,” says Tom Luke, a Rosewood Estates resident of more than 15 years.

Tom Luke stands on his balcony overlooking floodwaters in Rosewood Estates Feb. 27, 2021 in Socastee, South Carolina.

“They are building everywhere and the water has got to go somewhere. And they just dump it into the Intercoastal. All the development down river is built up ten feet or so — so they aren’t taking on any of the flooding. It's just this neighborhood and the next neighborhood over on Folly Rd. Bucksport and Conway are different situations, but it's all the same water really.”

He rents the ground floor apartment of his home to tenants, but with several feet of water down there, they’ve evacuated upstairs into Luke’s floor.

Terri Straka, left, paddles along Rosewood Dr. Feb. 27, 2021 in Socastee, South Carolina.

On an October morning in 2015, Terri Straka got out of bed and put her feet down in ankle deep water. “It was coming through the bathroom fixtures. Coming from underneath,” says the Rosewood Estates resident of 26 years who has been flooded three times in the last six years. “Everything changed in 2015.”

This time — the water is in her front yard. But she anticipates it to get worse.

Straka once farmed two plots in her backyard. Corn, watermelon, tomatoes — you name it — with chickens and enough eggs for the neighborhood. She was thinking about getting goats — but then the floods came. She says the soil can no longer support a garden.

“This is contaminated water. It's not drinking water. It's messing up our sewer systems,” she says.

New home construction on Creekside Dr. Feb. 25, 2021 in Socastee, South Carolina.

While the experience in 2015 was an awakening, Straka thought flooding of that scale would never happen again. “But it has. It has happened. Three times since then — to me personally. Some other people, it's happened a lot more.”

She blames new development, failure to maintain the Intercoastal, and disputes over flood zones between FEMA and Horry County. “You’ve got all of that development and all of that stormwater — and what do you expect it to do?”

Related story: Hurricane Isaias Photo Report

Sean Rayford is a photojournalist based in Columbia, South Carolina. See more at seanrayford.com