COLUMBIA, S.C. — It’s been nearly seven years since Columbia was flooded with more than 20 inches of rain which left portions of the city underwater and damaged the Columbia Canal.
“There was so much water coming down the Broad River and through our canal that breached the canal itself,” said Robert Yanity with Columbia Water.
He says it’s been a process of receiving the funding, and now things are moving forward.
“FEMA [Federal Emergency Management Agency] is going to provide funding for the scope for repairing the canal embankment,” he said. “We’ve come to an agreement on that scope of work, much of the design is done, so we hope to be putting it out a bid here shortly.”
That is just one of three projects for the canal.
“The first one is repairing the canal embankment. We’re also going to, of course, do the headgates and that is coming from a grant from The Department of Housing and Urban Development, HUD,” Yanity said. “And then, our third is an alternate water supply, to provide secondary access to water, this will be a pumphouse so we can pump water from the broad river.”
He added that costs will probably come close to $100 million with money coming from various funding sources such as FEMA and HUD.
“It’s a starting point, and just take it from there but hopefully this will make a difference in this community,” Nelson Madena said during a stroll near the canal.
As for what’s next, the completion of the permitting stage for FEMA is expected by the end of September with the bidding process beginning in early 2023.
The expectation is that all repairs will be completed by 2025.