Homes that were undamaged by Hurricane Matthew are about to flood in this part of Conway

Sun News (Myrtle Beach, SC)

Sept. 22--A sign on a chain-link fence along Pitch Landing Road warns passersby that "If You Can Read This," but the rest of the sign is under water.

Dozens of homes were inundated with floodwater Saturday in the southern Conway community between U.S. 701 and the Waccamaw River. Some of these homes escaped the wrath of Hurricane Matthew's flooding two years ago, but floodwaters are rising higher in the aftermath of Hurricane Florence.

Water was about 6 feet high Saturday at Daniel Edmonds' home, which he spent years building before he moved in 28 years ago. Edmonds and his neighbors had already evacuated, but he was making a couple trips back and forth Saturday morning on his camouflage boat to take some belongings to his daughter's house. That's where he, his wife and their German Shepherd and Chihuahua are staying.

Edmonds, walking barefoot, unloaded pieces of a bed frame, a rug and a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles pillow into his son-in-law's Silverado truck bed about a mile and half from his house, which is where the water meets the road.

He said it took about 20 to 30 minutes a few days earlier to get out of the floodwaters from his house, but now that the water has risen high enough, he can use his boat's motor and get out in 5 to 10 minutes.

"Better for the boat, bad for me," Edmonds said of the rising water.

He built his home on stilts specifically to withstand a major flood, he said, and it escaped Hurricane Matthew undamaged in 2016, with about 10 inches to spare.

Wading by his home early Saturday, the water was halfway up his top step, and Edmonds pointed to a spot about 2 feet higher than the current water line.

"I'm all done if it reaches there," he said, as a power pole audibly shakes several feet away due to the current.

The Waccamaw River, staged near 19 feet Saturday afternoon, is projected to rise another three feet before cresting Tuesday or Wednesday, according to the National Weather Service.

A retired plumber, Edmonds said he doesn't have flood insurance because he couldn't afford it, but he expressed more concern for his neighbors, rattling off short snippets of information about each one as he directed his boat past each home.

"They're just renters," he said, pointing to a house where the top of a white car peaked out from the water next to a bench swing.

"I'd be wanting my money back," he said about another, looking at a green house almost completely submerged. It was built just a few years ago, he said.

Edmonds knows the road to recovery will be long -- it took about four weeks after Matthew before he was able to drive to and from his house, he said -- but he's confident he and his neighbors will bounce back.

"Everybody down here helps each other," Edmonds said. "We got each others' backs."

David Weissman: @WeissmanMBO; 843-626-0305

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