Tens of thousands of Midlands flood survivors received federal food aid

Most of the roughly 31,250 Richland County residents who applied for federal food stamp assistance after the historic Oct. 4 flooding were approved for help.

Nearly 89 percent of those Richland County applicants were approved for Disaster Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program aid offered to survivors who could prove they lost property or income because of the flooding, according to preliminary data from the state Department of Social Services.

Thousands of residents in early November filed through Word of God Church and Ministries in Columbia during each day of the one-week program. Some said the flood, which closed roads and businesses in the Midlands, kept them out of work for a week or more. Others said the flooding had severely damaged their homes or property.

Most said one way or another, money was tight immediately after the flooding. Richland County residents waited in long lines, snaking throughout the church and into the parking lot, before speaking to DSS staff in the church.

But receiving a few hundred dollars to pay for groceries made the wait worth it, they said.

Statewide, about 88 percent of the more than 210,000 applicants who waited in those lines were approved, DSS spokeswoman Marilyn Matheus said. Richland County, hit hard by the storm, had more applications than any other South Carolina county, she said.

Applicants statewide were approved for up to $80 million in food aid benefits, though the amounts approved in each county are not yet available, Matheus said.

More than 87 percent of the 7,266 applications in Lexington County were approved, Matheus said.

The program was just a part of the overall effort to help South Carolina residents affected by the flood.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency and U.S. Small Business Association have provided tens of millions of dollars in disaster grants and loans. Other types of assistance, such as flood-related unemployment benefits and pro bono legal assistance, were also available to flood survivors.