Hyperbaric Chamber Therapy in West Ashley, SC

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCBD) – Several inches of rain fell on Monday across the Lowcountry leaving extensive flooding behind. That led to major problems on roadways and properties taking a toll on drivers, homeowners, and business owners.

The flooding impacts were felt in the City of Charleston, North Charleston, and more.

For one West Ashley family, the flooding and frustration aren’t new.

“It’s constantly getting worse,” said Matt Cody, a resident of Sandcroft Drive in West Ashley.

Photos and videos show major flooding on their street Monday. Matt and his wife, Kelly, say it’s a problem they have been dealing with for over three years.

“The water can’t drain so we have standing water in our backyard constantly,” said Cody. “So, we have mosquitos, flooding, and any time it rains like this, it goes into our house, our garage…”

Cody says there is also water underneath the house that isn’t able to dry out.

The City of Charleston’s Stormwater Management Division has been involved and has completed some of the work that needs to be done to fix the problem including emergency ditch clearing and maintenance, heavy excavation work such as tree stump and root removal, cleaning of the roadside system, and more.

“We had the city come out about a year ago after multiple emails,” said Cody.

There’s a reason the problem isn’t being resolved and it’s a problem that the city says is out of their hands.

“Unfortunately I think what’s still leading to a lot of the flooding is we can only take those cleaning efforts up to the edge of what’s basically called the critical area or the marsh. Once you hit the marsh area, you have to get a separate set of permits,” said Matthew Fountain, Charleston’s Stormwater Management Director.

Those are federal permits from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and state permits from the Department of Health and Environmental Control.

Fountain says it can take years to get those permits because of a struggling permit processing system. However, the city has been working with federal and state agencies to streamline the process.

“The City of Charleston along with many other counties and cities along the entire coastal section of south Carolina have been working for probably the last five and a half years or so with the state, and the last few years with the corps, trying to come up with a more efficient permitting system to be able to address these,” said Fountain.

Over the last few years, some progress on that has been made and Fountain is hopeful that soon the permitting system will take closer to three to six months instead of two years.

He says the Cody’s neighborhood is one on the list that the city plans to hire a consultant to prepare the permit application, go through the permitting process, then, once approved, hire contractors to begin extensive and expensive work to clear out the marsh.

In the meantime, the Cody family is still frustrated by the, sometimes, lakefront property that they didn’t sign up for.

“We have to worry about cars coming through, our cars being flooded,” said Cody. With my four-month-old, if we can’t get out of our house, if emergency vehicles can’t get there, that’s a major issue.”

Fountain says across the city, several projects are underway that will significantly improve flooding.

In the City of North Charleston, major flooding was also seen on Monday. A spokesperson for the city says anytime there is heavy rainfall in a short amount of time, the drainage system can become overwhelmed but, in yesterday’s case, the water cleared out within a few hours.

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The West Ashley Revitalization Commission on Wednesday night is set to discuss what historic preservation should look like off of the Charleston peninsula.

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - The West Ashley Revitalization Commission on Wednesday night is set to discuss what historic preservation should look like off of the Charleston peninsula.

Preservation advocates say after years of individual battles to protect specific buildings, this is a chance to formally discuss what policy options might look like.

In a city of history, it’s a debate over how old is old enough to be preserved.

Though the question has been debated around West Ashley for decades, it came to the surface again last month when an architect requested to demolish a house located at 1731 Savannah highway. Those against demolition said the building’s stone represents the last remaining structure from the 1940s time period when it was built.

The Charleston Design Review Board denied the architect’s application, protecting the home from demolition. However, board members said it would be nice to have more guidance on what the city envisions for preservation off the peninsula.

“What is the vision of West Ashley?” Charleston Design Review Board member Dinos Liollio said. “We need to plan and protect the buildings that may not go back to 1798 or 1787 when General Washington visited Charleston or may not go back to the Civil War necessarily.”

That conversation will be front and center Wednesday.

Charlie Smith, West Ashley Revitalization Commission Member and preservation advocate, said he’ll ask other commission members to endorse a temporary moratorium on the demolition of buildings 50 years or older across the city.

Notably, the commission can only recommend that plan. City council is the governing body that can implement it. Smith said the recommendation from the West Ashley Revitalization Commission for a temporary moratorium sends a message about the urgency of the situation. He said it will encourage the city council to address preservation ordinances.

Trying to protect “historic buildings without stopping the demolition of the buildings” doesn’t make sense, Smith said. “It’s like trying to fill a bathtub without putting the stopper in.”

The meeting will be held at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Reserve in the Citadel Mall.

Copyright 2023 WCSC. All rights reserved.

WEST ASHLEY, S.C. (WCBD) – A West Ashley man is warning others about a scam after someone attempted to gain access to his bank account while pretending to protect the victim from a fraud attempt.

“I initially got a text message asking if I had made a change,” explained Jamey Mellis, CEO of Software Solutions and Designs.

Mellis said the message appeared to come from his bank, Wells Fargo, on Wednesday.

“I’m looking at the message and just 10, 12, 15 seconds later I get a phone call from someone who said they’re from Wells Fargo fraud alert,” he recalled.

The person on the other end asked if he was attempting to make multiple purchases.

“Wanted to know if I had made a charge at Walmart out of Atlanta- I told him no. He asked me if I was out of town, and I said no. He goes ‘OK how about a charge at a gas station in Atlanta?’ No.”

The man texted him a link to confirm he did not make the charges.

“So, when I clicked on it, up came the screen asking me to sign into Wells Fargo — and I looked at it and did not have the same address as the link did. Nor was it a Wells Fargo address,” he warned.

Mellis told the man he didn’t know if this was legit.

“He said well, look- look at the number I’m calling you from and I want you to pull out your card. Turn your card over and you’ll see it’s the same number that’s on the back of your card and sure enough it was the same telephone number,” Mellis explained.

Mellis just happened to be driving by his Wells Fargo branch in West Ashley. He went inside and talked to someone.

“She told me that they were getting inundated with these types of calls and that it was definitely fraud.”

Mellis owns Software Solutions and Designs, and he is a certified, trained computer security expert. He said caller ID info can be faked to look like a call came from a legitimate number.

“Usually when I get a call and somebody tells me they’re from wherever I usually will hang up and call him to confirm,” he said.

He went the minute that I login, they capture my username and password and then they could’ve gone straight into Wells Fargo log into my account and got access to every account I have and drained everything that I have. I think if the average person, if they would have looked at that they would’ve fallen for that.”

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCIV) — Earlier this week, state Rep. Gary Brewer made a post on Facebook demanding the South Carolina Department of Transportation (SCDOT) look into the Highway 61 Bridge on Ashley River. Brewer is claiming the bridge is unsafe and driving on it could lead to dangerous collisions.

"I've been driving that road since 1982 and it's gotten worse and worse and worse," said Jeffrey Hearn, who lives in West Ashley.

The Highway 61 Bridge may be small, but for some driving over, it can be nerve-wracking.

Read more: Bridge replacement project along West Ashley Greenway to begin Monday

"Whenever I'm going over (the bridge), I tell my kids just to be quiet," said Addie-Jane Lynn, a West Ashley realtor. "I will answer your questions when I get over this bridge because the potholes are bad, it's kind of scary."

Many neighbors complain that the bride has erosion, which ends up leading to potholes.

"It's eroding on the sides and it's got a slope to it," Hearn said. "The other side that draws the city-bound traffic toward the other lane, it's really hazardous and really needs to be fixed."

Hearn has been driving over the Highway 61 Bridge for most of his life and after years of frustration, he decided to make a change. He hopes action is taken soon.

"I can get to where I'm going in 12 minutes on a bicycle and it takes me 20 minutes on a car," Hearn said. "I would love to see Glenn McConnell finished all the way to Summerville so it will get Summerville traffic out of 61. I don't know what else to say because all they do is talk about it, but don't get anything done."

Read more: Ashley River Bridge North closed due to mechanical malfunction, CPD says

The SCDOT issued the following statement on the bridge:

"The Ashley River Road bridge over the railroad tracks is in fair condition and does not currently meet the criteria to be replaced. We routinely inspect all state maintained bridges and this bridge is safe for travel."

"SCDOT is committed to improving our bridge network statewide. We are repairing and replacing hundreds of deficient bridges across South Carolina as part of the agency's Strategic 10-year plan to improve the state's roads and bridges. Additionally, SCDOT has asked the General Assembly to consider an additional $200 million per year over five years to be included in the upcoming budget that would be directed to expedite and increase those efforts."

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - Some residents of the Avondale Community are worried about how proposed safety improvements in West Ashley will cause problems for their neighborhood.

Officials with both the city of Charleston and Charleston County said the improvements will make the intersection safer, but some Avondale residents worry it will negatively impact their neighborhood.

A petition called “Stop the Avondale Avenue at Savannah Highway Realignment Project” currently has over 300 signatures and counting.

READ MORE: Petition: “Stop the Avondale Avenue at Savannah Highway Realignment Project”

The writers of the petition claim realigning Avondale Avenue and Nicholson Street on Savannah Highway will bring “profound” and “permanent” effects on the livability, culture and safety of the Avondale Neighborhood.

For some background, the Avondale Realignment is just one part of the Savannah Highway Capacity and Intersection Improvement Project, which aims to improve traffic flow and safety at several West Ashley intersections. The project’s website states the plan for the Avondale portion of the project includes realigning Avondale Avenue with Nicholson Street, which would require the demolition of the building that currently hosts DBs and Alpha Graphics.

The City of Charleston said it is currently working with property owners to secure right-of-way acquisition for the realignment,’ which essentially means the city is working to secure the property owner’s consent.

Avondale Resident Katherine Anderson said she thinks realigning Avondale Avenue with Nicholson Street will push more cars through area neighborhoods, increasing traffic. She said she is also concerned that the realignment would enable a new parking garage to be built where the DBs and Alpha Graphics building currently sits.

“I think that this project is really to get the commuters into town and out of town, and the residents that live here are not necessarily being thought of, in my opinion,” Anderson said.

The City of Charleston said a private property owner has expressed interest in building a garage once the intersection improvement is done, but that it is not a part of the county or city’s plan.

“The city appreciates the county’s efforts to make this part of Avondale safer, particularly in light of last week’s tragic collision, and is working with area property owners to help secure the needed right-of-ways,” The City of Charleston said in a statement.

Copyright 2023 WCSC. All rights reserved.