South Carolinians are always complaining about beaten down roads, and Hurricane Florence, which made landfall in the Carolinas on Sept. 14, did not do much to help. Though most of the damage occured on the coast, the inland flooding caused by rivers overflowing became a major issue for many South Carolina residents.
In response to the flooding, South Carolina mobilized the South Carolina Department of Transportation and the National Guard.
The storm also occurred relatively close to the upcoming midterm elections. South Carolina democratic nominee James Smith, who was mobilized with the National Guard, commented on the incumbent republican Governor Henry McMaster’s response to the flooding.
Shortly after the floods, photos could be seen of vehicles being destroyed as South Carolina roads crumbled. Smith has used the flooding to criticize McMaster for vetoing a gas-tax increase bill.
Smith said that he believes the extra money could have been used to make improvements to infrastructure. He said that McMaster has neglected this during his campaign.
“The condition of our infrastructure should be a concern of every South Carolinian, and South Carolina deserves leadership that is going to fix our roads… They are lousy and … dam failures are a real concern, and they have life-and-death implications,” Smith said to The State.
McMaster’s campaign has said that Smith was politicizing a natural disaster. They also said that there is no evidence to support that a shortage of money is the reason for roads washing out during a flood of this size.
The S.C. Department of Transportation is currently executing a 10 year plan in which they will fix the “worst of the worst” roads by 100 miles a year.
I personally was mobilized with the National Guard and worked to prepare roads for flooding and minimize flooding that had already occured. Personally I believe it is very difficult to prevent roads from getting flooded when this amount of rainfall occurs.
We, the volunteers, worked with the S.C. DOT and every day the amount they expected the river near us to rise grew by several inches. I was only deployed for a week but by the end of the week the water had risen and just begun to flood the road.
I cannot say for sure that roads being washed out could have been prevented with more financial resources but I can say that, based on my experience and what I saw working with the S.C. DOT, infrastructure in South Carolina should be updated and it is long overdue in coastal cities.
Taylor Todman is a senior international business major. She is from Charleston and has said that the roads need to be repaired.
“They are kind of awful and have potholes everywhere,” Todman said.
In Rock Hill, many Winthrop Students have noticed how the roads could benefit from improvement.
Trying to figure out why South Carolina handles infrastructure the way it does is a whole different issue. However, after seeing the road systems and infrastructure first hand it may be a good idea to use politics to call on politicians like Smith has done with McMaster to shed light on these issues. Hopefully this will lead to improvements that could be made which benefit everyone and minimize future damage.
