By Scott Graber
It’s Friday, and I’m in Port Royal. Earlier this morning I called Mike Horton — a Clemson trained engineer in Charleston — in an effort to better understand “The Point/King Street Drainage Project.”
“I think I know the concept, but is our drainage problem like the drainage problem in Mt. Pleasant?”
“Yes and no,” Horton replied. “Mt. Pleasant’s ‘Old Town’ is like Beaufort’s Point in the sense that much of ‘Old Town’ is built below the high tide elevation. So when there was a high tide, and rain, there was no place for (Mt. Pleasant’s) water to go. They didn’t have a pond like Beaufort.”
“On the Point, the pond gives you some storage. But when that storage is exceeded — three times the last two years — you get flooding unless you have pumps.”
“But pumps are mechanical and are housed in concrete — much of that concrete below the water line,” he said. “In Mt. Pleasant, we hid the mechanical parts with vegetation. But at the end of day the pumps have to be serviced and, in Beaufort, there is the (existing) view.”
“View?”
“Yeah, there is a great vista of the Beaufort River — and so our first thought was to enhance that view.”
“How?”
“By making the top of the pump station a viewing platform,” he replied. “People would be given access to the platform, giving them an elevated view of the Beaufort River. We also proposed graphic panels telling the history of the Point and Beaufort,” he said. “We thought about benches, boxes with plants, using a tabby finish for the platform itself.”
“But the viewing platform was rejected,” Horton said. “The idea of having people, tourists, gathering just off Federal Street was a deal-breaker for the Point people.”
It reminded me of the previous controversies surrounding horse drawn carriages and small groups of pedestrians wanting to see the interior of 511 Prince Street where Robert Smalls once lived (as slave and then as owner.)
We moved on to hurricanes and the storm surge that sometimes comes on top of a high tide.
“The project really can’t take a direct hit from a hurricane — or stop the surge that sometimes comes with a hurricane, but the pumps can stop what is called a ‘10-year rainfall event’ that brings 4 inches of water in less than an hour. Or dumps 6.8 inches over 24 hours. An ‘event’ that is happening more frequently these days.”
As I talked with Horton I remembered the comments of the crowd on May 8 at City Hall suggesting that two or three feet of flooding on King Street was acceptable three times over a period of 442 days.
It is true that some of the old houses—in the King, Prince and New Street areas —are built three feet off the ground. And for those fortunate owners their carpets, baseboards and sheetrock would (probably) not be damaged.
But that is not the case for houses on grade or for the First African Baptist Church on New Street where Robert Smalls worshipped. “When we talked to their pastor (about the project) he was enthusiastic, saying he had rot under the church (now being repaired) caused by the flooding.”
In Charleston (where there are 10 new pumps) flooding has caused some owners to elevate smaller houses; and some may think the last line of defense is flood insurance. But homeowner’s insurance is becoming an endangered species — last year insurance companies lost money in 18 states.
But Point people have the right to say that the proposed service building is hideous; and the proposed pump in the pond (just off Federal Street) is ugly. Or the rainfall projections are exaggerated.
But that can’t be the entire discussion.
One must remember that other parts of downtown Beaufort, not just the Point, are drained by the King Street pipes; that Rob Montgomery (the architect) has the right to design buildings that are less conspicuous; and the prospect — much debated to be sure — of sea level rise.
Assuming that sea levels will rise; one might say that this $10,000,000 gift from the Feds buys the Point people two feet of protection they don’t now have. These folks, will get an elevation upgrade of about 2 feet upon which their heirs and assigns will build their own barrier.
But I don’t want to appear unbiased. I once had a building on Carteret, now owned by my son, that has been flooded — along with a half dozen others on Carteret Street.
Scott Graber is a lawyer, novelist, veteran columnist and longtime resident of Port Royal. He can be reached at cscottgraber@gmail.com.
