Irmo neighborhood hit with a ‘wave of water.’ Residents question the source.

Within one minute, Laura Easley Hayes’ home in an Irmo neighborhood was flooded with what she described as a “wave of water.” It broke her door, tore apart her fence, totaled two cars, and insurance won’t cover any of it because the Stonegate neighborhood is not in a flood zone, she said.

A severe thunderstorm warning was issued in Richland County Saturday afternoon, according to the National Weather Service, right before Stonegate was hit with a surge of water.

Stonegate residents said they were confused by how quickly everything happened. Even with a small creek behind the neighborhood, heavy rain has never caused intense flooding or strong currents before.

“Everybody is questioning it,” Hayes said. “Something had to happen. It doesn’t seem like it was the creek.”

The creek hadn’t risen much when Hayes went to help a neighbor around 6 p.m. Saturday who lived in a low spot in the street where rainwater collected. Her house was fine when she left, she said.

It wasn’t until another neighbor began to shout minutes later that Hayes realized her cars and her home were nearly underwater. Her security camera footage shows that just a minute before, her living room was completely dry.

“All of my boys came barreling out,” Hayes said. “My three kids and my two dogs and my cat came running out this door. I couldn’t get back in because the floodwater was high.”

Building and rebuilding

Hayes wasn’t the only one who now has to “start all over again.”

On Hayes’ street, curbs are piled with debris, moldy furniture, and pieces of wooden fences from backyards, many of which were destroyed by the intensity of the rushing water. Her neighbors are all working to try and fix what was broken, Hayes said.

Many of them, like Hayes, cannot get insurance money because the neighborhood is not in a flood zone. Hayes has gotten three repair quotes so far. But it’s lost money she never accounted for, Hayes said.

“I moved in here with my kids and myself, and I had nothing. And now I’m watching all my stuff go to the curb.”

Her three sons helped clear away some of the ruined keepsakes, including “a whole lifetime of pictures.” Most of them were of her sons as children.

Couches, clothes, a box of Christmas decorations, throw pillows, Star Wars movies, books, and photo albums still wet from the rain, sit on her curb.

“I built all of this as a single woman,” Hayes said. “I got divorced after 23 years and I had to rebuild that life, and I did. And I was so proud of that. And now I’m rebuilding again.”

Neighbors step up

Without financial support from insurance or any available resources to help Stonegate residents rebuild, they’ve begun to rely on each other.

A Facebook group was created. Unaffected neighbors came to help at damaged properties. Members of the group have posted videos and photos of the flooding Saturday and have reached out to city council members in the hopes of getting support.

“Our neighborhood has limited resources,” Stonegate resident Racheal Savage said. “A lot of us are single moms. I’m a single mom. It’s hurting us financially, and we have no resources except the community that we’ve built ourselves.”

Where did the water come from?

More than one resident described the flood as a “river.”

Savage and her three children, all under the age of 8, were just getting over the flu. They had been watching movies together inside for weeks. She noticed the rain was heavy and took a few photos. Water started to pour in through her door shortly after. By then, the crawlspace beneath her house was flooded.

Savage picked her children up.

“I carried them out through the water,” Savage said. “There was a strong current. My kids couldn’t have walked through it.”

The intensity and direction of the water made residents question whether the creek caused the overflow.

“The only other time this flooded was in ‘15 when everybody flooded. And of course then everybody has FEMA to help,” Hayes said after speaking with her neighbors.

Hayes and Savage are both staying with friends until they figure out what is next.

Even if she decides to rebuild, Hayes worries about the future of her “used-to-be sanctuary.”

“If we don’t figure out what happened upstream that caused that wave, it’s going to happen again,” she said.