Drainage ditches are important for keeping Lowcountry neighborhoods above water.
While crews work to make sure those drains are well maintained and ready for storms, the ditches in people's backyards can often remain overlooked.
Isaac Washington says in all the years he has been in West Ashley, no one has maintained the ditch behind his home.
"Nobody seems to care. They do everything for everybody else, but they don't seem to care about that section. It is ridiculous," says Washington.
It results in damaging and dangerous flooding.
“I spend a lot of money building the yard up, and the city came along, because the street used to be lower, and they paved the street to go up, but there is no place for the water to go but the ditch," says Washington.
We took his concern to city leaders to see why his backyard has been neglected.
“I can tell you those ditches have not been paid attention to whatsoever. The problem the city is having – is we are trying to go back and reclaim that easement," says District 9 Councilman Peter Shahid.
Shahid says as it stands now, given the location of the ditch, the city does not have the legal right to maintain the area. But it is a problem they are working on solving.
“We got a lot of work to do that we are attending to, and we will try to push these things as fast as we can," says Shahid.
In the meantime, other preparations are underway to keep the city safe.
“Our goal here is to make sure that we minimize the flooding as much as we can and try to keep the flooding out of people’s residences, out of their living spaces," says Shahid.