City of Charleston preparing for coastal flooding over next few days

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCBD) – The city of Charleston is encouraging residents to be prepared for major flooding as high tides are expected Thursday.

Coastal flooding will impact much of the Lowcountry starting as early as 7:00 a.m. Thursday morning.

The National Weather Service Charleston says that tides of over 8 ft. are expected Thursday, Friday and Saturday mornings.

The city is preparing early and says crews are mobilizing personnel and equipment, preparing to check flood mitigation devices, and putting up mobile signage.

“Commuters will tend to try to test their luck and plow through that water and of course we see stalled vehicles. With tidal induced flooding like this, you can expect that the water may be high enough in some areas to create stalled vehicles,” said Shannon Scaff, Emergency Management Director with City of Charleston.

Tides are projected to bring minor to moderate flooding. The National Weather Service says the impacts could result in some minor flooding to downtown properties.

Mayor John Tecklenburg says there must also be a plan for the future.

“The work we’ve done with the corp of engineers to plan a sea wall to protect us from storm surge, but also that would cover sea level rise and high tides like we’re going to see over the next couple of days. If you look 50 years down the road for our city’s future, we’ve got to put those kinds of protections in place,” said Mayor John Tecklenburg.

Road closures can be monitored throughout the day here.