Beaufort’s Mossy Oaks upgrade stopped ‘scourge of flooding.’ Can the system withstand Elsa?
A $6.5 million project to end chronic flooding in one Beaufort neighborhood has worked like a charm.
But will it withstand Elsa, the tropical storm bearing down on the Southeast, and its first hurricane season?
For Neal Pugliese, chairman of the Mossy Oaks Drainage Task Force who handles special projects for the city of Beaufort, the answer is yes.
To be sure, he said, the stormwater drainage project will be put to the test for the first time this hurricane season, which began in June and runs through November.
And episodic flooding still will occur on properties, even with the new system in place.
“But we’d much prefer the flooding be in yards rather than living rooms,” Pugliese said.
The project alleviated the “scourge of repetitive flooding” and showed how local government can work for residents, he said.
It’s already been tested by a few heavy rains since it came online in April.
It passed, he said.
“To date, the system is working precisely as it is designed — precisely,” Pugliese said.
It handled one episode in which 3 inches of rain fell in 25 minutes, he said.
The National Hurricane Center said Tuesday morning that Tropical Storm Elsa would arrive in South Carolina late Wednesday or early Thursday, with heavy rainfall expected, and the Lowcountry especially susceptible to flash and urban flooding.
A tropical storm watch is in place for the Lowcountry.
Pugliese says a fast-moving storm is expected to produce a tremendous amount of water, and high winds could also blow down trees.
Residents urged to clear ditches of debris
Pugliese expects the new Mossy Oaks system to handle the deluge of water “efficiently and effectively.”
The biggest test will come later in the hurricane season, when the severest weather typically occurs, Pugliese said.
In advance of Elsa, Beaufort’s Public Works Department checked flap gates along the Spanish Moss Trail and The Point, to make sure they were not blocked by debris and that they opened and closed correctly, said Kathleen Williams, a spokesperson for the city.
Sweeps of city streets to check for debris blocking drains also were conducted.
Pugliese says it is critical that residents check ditches for debris so items do not block drains, which can cause flash flooding. If they can’t remove the items, residents are asked to call Public Works at (843) 525-7053.
Pugliese recalled an instance in which Public Works pulled three 40-yard containers of trash out of one ditch that was clogged with wheels, axles, trash cans, chairs and barbed wire.
Ditches that were improved in the Mossy Oaks project can’t perform as designed if they are treated like trash receptacles, he said.
The construction phase of the Mossy Oaks projects began in July 2020 and was completed in April 2021.
The 580-acre Battery Creek drainage basin includes about 4,500 residents in Beaufort, Port Royal and unincorporated areas of Beaufort County.
Before the project, the Mossy Oaks drainage area was sort of like a bathtub, being high on the ends and low in the middle, and making proper drainage of rain, groundwater and tidal water impossible, Pugliese said.
New tidal flood gates were installed, limiting the amount of water released into neighborhoods.
The city of Beaufort took the lead in the multi-jurisdictional project.
“I’m a little passionate about this because I have seen the adverse impacts that flooding causes in this area,” Pugliese said.
