Find out how Conway plans to quickly recover from future flooding, severe weather

CONWAY, S.C. (WMBF) - You can drop-in to Conway’s comprehensive planning meeting to discuss and share ideas about how the city plans to bounce back from future flooding and severe weather.

The city has hosted a few of these meetings to update its comprehensive plan, and now the state requires communities to add a resilience element to that plan.

Adding a resilience element means planning how the city can handle, quickly recover and learn from various impactful events.

While the final drop-in meeting will include the city’s plans for future pandemics, ice storms and vector-borne diseases, its focus will be on what impacts Conway the most which are flooding and severe weather.

The city hopes residents attend the meeting and tell them if they’re experiencing flooding in their neighborhood and circle it on a map.

Allison Hardin, Director of Planning and Development for the city of Conway, said the discussion is a great way to get involved and learn about these impacts especially if you’re new to the area.

“There are a lot of people who have moved here to the Conway area since the last big flood we’ve had and might not be as aware of what flooding opportunities exist and where some of the flood areas are, so we’ll have that information available as well,” said Hardin.

They also want residents to share what kind of projects they think the city should be involved in or present any challenges they haven’t identified.

At the meeting, you will also hear about the city’s current Chestnut Bay Resilience Project.

The project is a proposed 7.8-acre constructed stormwater wetland aiming to alleviate flooding in that area.

The project costs a total of $2,845,920 and will consist of a constructed wetland, a community park and a floodplain restoration along Crabtree Swamp Canal.

The city bought more than 40 properties prone to flooding to prevent residents from living in the high-risk area.

Hardin said this project is a major step forward to help recover from flooding that affects more than just the city.

“Resilience is a concept that’s really important in our area not just for our community but for our county and region as well. Anytime that you can take the opportunity to educate yourself about the risks in your community from natural hazards and the like is a good time to do that,” said Hardin.

You can learn more about the Chestnut Bay Resilience project and share your ideas at the comprehensive planning meeting on Tuesday, September 27 from 5:30-7:30 p.m. at the Planning and Building Department in Conway.

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