Millions of dollars in grant funding are being awarded to Horry County, specifically the Bucksport community, in an effort to reduce the impacts of flooding in the area.
Getting approval for competitive grants for flooding has been in the works for two years.
Now, the first steps to bringing improvements to two different areas in Bucksport start next week.
Horry County applied for the grants in 2020; then, their applications were processed and reviewed in 2021 by the South Carolina Office of Resilience.
Now, they're starting the first steps to putting plans and improvements into place.
SCOR mitigation director, Phleshia Lewis, explained, "Implementing some mitigation efforts that will reduce the flooding there and it won't 100% stop flooding from the future, but it will have a huge impact in reducing that flooding in the future."
The two areas of focus are making improvements to Big Bull Landing Road and the Cowford Swamp Tributary Bypass Channel.
Their first step towards those improvements is holding a community meeting in Bucksport.
Pam Kendrick, the infrastructure manager at SCOR said they're working with Horry County and a team of engineers to design project plans.
"They're gonna explain exactly what they've analyzed, and what they've come up with, why they've arrived at those solutions, how those solutions would or may impact the people of Bucksport and those surround the project area," said Kendrick.
Lewis added they're encouraging community members to attend the meeting, as residents' input and feedback are vital pieces of putting a final plan together.
"Those things aren't etched in stone yet; that's the purpose of the public meeting, so that could change based on input and feedback that's given from the community," Lewis said.
Each project was awarded different grant amounts.
Kendrick explained, "Big Bull Landing Road has, was initially awarded at $715,000 and Cowford Swamp was initially awarded at $1,266,000."
Kendrick said these prices can be revised depending on the final plans, since there will be updated costs for things like labor and materials now, versus when Horry County applied for the grants two years ago.
The community meeting will be held on Thursday, Dec. 8 at the James R. Frazier community center, located at 1370 Bucksport Road, Bucksport, SC 29527.
The meeting begins at 6 p.m.
Earlier this month, the Association for the Betterment of Bucksport was granted a separate flood mitigation grant from Thriving Earth Exchange.
That grant money will be used to cover the costs of professional assessments and flood mitigation recommendations.