S.C. Looks to Repeal Old Laws on Pinball, Dancing, Fighting

In South Carolina, it is illegal to challenge someone to a gun or a sword fight, dance or play pinball on Sundays,and even do business in some areas.

“Well, then even church would be closed. There are people dancing in church,” said Fountain Inn business owner, Sonya Haggan.

You can’t run a dance hall, either, unless you want to spend 30 days in jail. So, maybe you’ll just head into the office instead, right? Wrong. Technically, it’s illegal to work at all on Sundays, especially if you’re selling things “non-life sustaining” like cars or clothes.

“That’s crazy. Then everybody at a hospital or a store…everything is all out of whack,” added Hagan.

You can forget about taking the kids to an arcade. Juveniles can’t play pinball here. It’s also illegal for couples to live together before marriage, commit adultery, and engage in pre-marital sex.

These are just a sample of laws still on the books in South Carolina. Some date back to 1880.

“I tell you what, times have changed,” said Nadine Clarke of Simpsonville.

Obviously some of these laws are a little funny and most people can’t believe they actually exist, but the real question is can any of these laws actually land you in the slammer?

“These are silly laws,” said Fountain Inn Police Chief, Keith Morton.

So, that’s a “no.” In his forty years on the police force, Morton has learned not to get too surprised.

“I like to think that there was some thought given before these “heinous” crimes were addressed. Perhaps it was just a different time, but it is sort of humorous,” said Morton.

There’s a law that convicts a man who falsely promises marriage to a woman.

“They could escape the conviction if he married her,” explained 7 News Reporter, Addie Hampton.

“I don’t know who’s being punished,” laughed Chief Morton.

Despite the laughter, the lawmakers behind the movement to repeal these laws have a point. They say taking them off the books removes certain precedents in court that could free a criminal. It also shows how easy it would be to repeal not only the seemingly silly laws, but the more substantive laws that don’t ring as true today as they did when they were approved.

The bill to drop the old laws is sponsored by Representative Stephen Goldfinch of Murrells Inlet. Wednesday, he told 7 News the bill passed unanimously through sub-committee this week.

Goldfinch said they plan to attack other outdated laws in stages by first starting with 11. In addition to the laws mentioned above, other laws prohibit citizens from participating in a lottery (there’s a state lottery in South Carolina), and two others that deal with railroad line removal and the removal of hand or lever cars from railroad tracks and leaving them near crossings.

Full list of laws to be repealed:

SECTION 63-19-2430. Playing pinball.
It is unlawful for a minor under the age of eighteen to play a pinball machine.

SECTION 16-3-410. Sending or accepting challenge to fight.
It is unlawful for a person to challenge another to fight with a sword, pistol, rapier, or any other deadly weapon or to accept a challenge.

SECTION 16-3-420. Carrying or delivering challenge; serving as second.
Whoever shall (a) willingly or knowingly carry or deliver any such challenge in writing or verbally deliver any message intended as, or purporting to be, such a challenge, (b) be present at the fighting of any duel as a second or (c) aid or give countenance thereto shall, for every such offense, on conviction thereof, be forever disabled from holding any office of honor or trust in this State and shall be imprisoned in the Penitentiary for a term not exceeding two years, at the discretion of the court, and shall be fined in a sum not less than five hundred dollars nor more than one thousand dollars.

SECTION 16-19-20. Adventuring in lotteries.
Whoever shall be adventurer in or shall pay any moneys or other consideration or shall in any way contribute unto or upon account of any sales or lotteries shall forfeit for every such offense the sum of one hundred dollars to be recovered with costs of suit, by action or indictment in any court of competent jurisdiction in this State, one moiety thereof to and for the use of the State and the other moiety thereof to the person who shall inform and sue for the same.

SECTION 52-13-10. Operation on Sunday forbidden.
It shall be unlawful for any person to keep open or admit persons to any public dancing hall owned or operated by him or to allow any person to continue thereat between the hours of twelve o’clock, midnight, Saturday and twelve o’clock, midnight, Sunday, and all such places shall be and remain closed to the public between such hours. The violation of the provisions of this section shall subject the offender to a fine of not less than ten nor more than fifty dollars for the first offense and for the second offense not less than fifty dollars nor more than one hundred dollars or imprisonment for thirty days.

SECTION 53-1-40. Unlawful to work on Sunday.
On the first day of the week, commonly called Sunday, it shall be unlawful for any person to engage in worldly work, labor, business of his ordinary calling or the selling or offering to sell, publicly or privately or by telephone, at retail or at wholesale to the consumer any goods, wares or merchandise or to employ others to engage in work, labor, business or selling or offering to sell any goods, wares or merchandise, excepting work of necessity or charity. Provided, that in Charleston County the foregoing shall not apply to any person who conscientiously believes, because of his religion, that the seventh day of the week ought to be observed as the Sabbath and who actually refrains from secular business or labor on that day.

SECTION 53-1-60. Sale of certain items on Sunday prohibited.
The sale or offer to sell the following items on Sunday is prohibited: Clothing and clothing accessories (except those which qualify as swimwear, novelties, souvenirs, hosiery, or undergarments); housewares, china, glassware, and kitchenware; home, business and office furnishings, and appliances; tools, paints, hardware, building supplies, and lumber; jewelry, silverware, watches, clocks, luggage, musical instruments, recorders, recordings, radios, television sets, phonographs, record players or so-called hi-fi or stereo sets, or equipment; sporting goods (except when sold on premises where sporting events and recreational facilities are permitted); yard or piece goods; automobiles, trucks, and trailers. No inference shall arise from the foregoing enumeration that either the sale or the offering for sale on Sunday of items or articles not mentioned is permitted.

SECTION 58-17-160. Railroads shall not remove from towns of more than 500.
In the exercise of the powers and rights conferred in this chapter no railroad shall remove its line of railway from any incorporated town of more than five hundred inhabitants through which it now runs.

SECTION 58-17-3400. Removal of hand or lever cars from track and leaving it near crossing shall be unlawful.
It shall be unlawful for any railroad section master or any person in charge of or connected with any hand car or lever car to remove it from any railroad track and continue it stationary within fifty yards of any public crossing other than at any regular railroad section house except when necessary to avoid an approaching train or when in charge of employees engaged in actual work upon such crossing, and then only for such a period as is necessary to avoid such train or to perform such work. Any person violating the provisions of this section shall, upon conviction, be fined not exceeding fifty dollars or be imprisoned not exceeding thirty days. Any railroad company shall be liable for damages for any horse frightened as a result of the violation of the provisions of this section by any of its employees.

SECTION 16-15-50. Seduction under promise of marriage.
A male over the age of sixteen years who by means of deception and promise of marriage seduces an unmarried woman in this State is guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction, must be fined at the discretion of the court or imprisoned not more than one year. There must not be a conviction under this section on the uncorroborated testimony of the woman upon whom the seduction is charged, and no conviction if at trial it is proved that the woman was at the time of the alleged offense lewd and unchaste. If the defendant in any action brought under this section contracts marriage with the woman, either before or after the conviction, further proceedings of this section are stayed.

SECTION 16-15-60. Adultery or fornication.
Any man or woman who shall be guilty of the crime of adultery or fornication shall be liable to indictment and, on conviction, shall be severally punished by a fine of not less than one hundred dollars nor more than five hundred dollars or imprisonment for not less than six months nor more than one year or by both fine and imprisonment, at the discretion of the court.

S.C. May Raise Front Seat Passenger Age to 13

South Carolina may raise the minimum age required to ride in the front seat from 6 to 13.

In Georgia, the front seat is off limits to children younger than 8 who are less than 57 inches tall.

A bill introduced by Rep. Shannon Erickson, R-Beaufort, would make a host of automobile safety improvements to South Carolina’s notoriously lax law, bringing it from one the nation’s weakest to one of the strongest. The proposal calls for various increases in child-restraint requirements.

“I see the results of devastating motor vehicle accidents almost every day. I have had patients die in motor vehicle accidents,” said pediatrician Deborah Greenhouse, past president of the SC Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

“I have had a patient in the intensive care unit for weeks with numerous fractions, a halo on her head and bolts in her head and her neck.”

Greenhouse, addressing a House committee Wednesday, said the deaths and injuries can be prevented and presented data to support Erickson’s bill.

In South Carolina, an elementary school study found that 49 percent of children left the school pickup line incorrectly restrained; nearly 34 percent left school property not restrained in any way. Car seat use reduces by 71 percent the risk of death for infants less than 1 year old by nearly 54 percent for toddlers 1 to 4 years in age.

Instead of sending the bill forward committee, the members voted to gather more research on how other states address the issue. The sticking point was raising the age from 6 to 13, an increase Rep. Walt McLeod called “kind of ludicrous.”

What to Watch at Tonight's GOP Debate

As Republican presidential candidates gather in Detroit for their 11th debate Thursday, they’ll be hard-pressed to top their riveting performance in the one last week in Houston.

Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio have a strong incentive to resume their tag-team assault on front-runner Donald Trump after he won seven more states Tuesday.

Also in the mix: It will be Trump’s first face-to-face encounter with his cable news nemesis Megyn Kelly since the Fox News anchor confronted him at the first GOP debate in August over his history of making demeaning remarks about women.

Here are three things to watch for:

Will Donald Trump stumble?

That question has endured for more than eight months as the New York billionaire has not just survived one controversy after another, but gained strength from them.

Now that Trump’s march toward the nomination appears close to unstoppable, he faces enormous pressure to avoid the kind of outbursts that raise questions about his temperament.

Trump showed restraint on Super Tuesday in a mild-mannered election night news conference in Florida. But can he calibrate his aggressive impulses just right – not too hot, not too cold – as Cruz and Rubio fight to knock him off balance?

And will Trump be rattled by questions from Kelly, a Fox News star he has called a bimbo, lightweight and third-rate reporter? Kelly will moderate the debate with fellow Fox News anchors Bret Baier and Chris Wallace.

Can Rubio or Cruz find an effective line of attack against Trump?

When Rubio abandoned his failed leave-Trump-alone strategy last week, the Florida senator went after him from multiple directions.

There were the Polish workers in the U.S. illegally who helped build Trump Tower in Manhattan in the 1980s; the students suing Trump University for alleged fraud; the scant details about Trump’s healthcare agenda; the foreigners hired instead of Americans to wait tables at Trump’s posh private club in Palm Beach, Fla.

Cruz, a senator from Texas, joined in, ridiculing Trump’s reason – he’s being audited – for refusing to release his tax returns.

After the debate, Rubio’s personal insults against Trump escalated sharply. But he still lost 10 out of 11 contests on Super Tuesday. Now, the Detroit debate will offer Rubio and Cruz what could be one of their last opportunities to try an attack that actually works.

How will the presence of John Kasich and the absence of Ben Carson affect the dynamics?

Ohio Gov. John Kasich has yet to win a state, but he is battling Rubio for the role of party establishment alternative to Trump.

Up to now, Kasich’s nonconfrontational tactics have yielded nothing better than second-place finishes in New Hampshire and Vermont. Will he stick with his campaign, hoping that voters in Michigan on Tuesday and in his home state the following week will vault him into serious contention? Or will Kasich pull a Hail Mary switch the way Rubio did?

The Detroit debate will be the first without Ben Carson, a retired neurosurgeon who was popular among evangelical Christians.

His base of support was nowhere near enough to win a state. But in some of the winner-take-all contests ahead, Carson’s supporters could still essentially decide the winner if they drift collectively toward one candidate. It’s worth watching whether anyone on stage in Detroit can draw votes from those who liked his calm demeanor and his faith-based politics.

Sleep App Seeks Links Between Health, Sleep

A new sleep monitoring app from the American Association for Sleep Apnea is expected to help people improve their sleep habits and general health, but will also contribute to a crowd-sourced study on the connections between sleep and health outcomes.

SleepHealth is the result of a collaboration between the AASA and IBM, which has linked the app to the Watson Health Cloud to store, analyze and disseminate data collected with the app for the large-scale study.

The app, available only on the iPhone, was built on Apple's ResearchKit framework. The developers said this allowed them to also design SleepHealth with the Apple Watch in mind, using sensor built into the devices to track sleep and health data, including heart rates and environmental light levels.

The plan is to collect data for several years, analyzing it using Watson Health to uncover patterns and connections in data. The system can compare the data to other sources such as medical literature, treatment guidelines, claims and clinical patient data, allowing for further analysis.

"We've made life the laboratory for this study by crowd-sourcing data and input to achieve an unprecedented understanding of sleep in a non-invasive manner," Dr. Carl Stepnowsky, an associate professor at University of California San Diego, said in a press release. "This new app will help us build the world's largest longitudinal study to collect data on both healthy and unhealthy sleepers that can be published as an open study and shared with other researchers."

SleepHealth includes a method to prove participants are over age 18 and can consent to participate in the trial. Once registered, the app will collect data on users, removing personal information before uploading to the cloud. Aside from collected data, users also receive health and sleep tips based on what the app learns about their habits.

"One of our goals at IBM Watson Health is to eliminate silos that hinder collaboration between researchers, patients and clinicians, and create opportunities for these communities to share and learn from one another," said Dr. Kyu Rhee, chief health officer for Watson Health. "It is exciting to see Watson Health and our ecosystem of partners help advance our understanding of how an essential, yet often under-appreciated factor like sleep impacts so many health outcomes like heart disease and diabetes."

Congress Tells DOJ Case Against Apple "Fool's Errand"

The Justice Department is on a “fool’s errand” trying to force Apple to unlock the iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino terrorists, lawmakers told FBI director James Comey on Tuesday.

Lawmakers of both parties sharply challenged Comey as the House judiciary committee considered the FBI’s court order to unlock an iPhone owned by Syed Farook, who with his wife killed 14 people at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, California, in December and was killed by law enforcement.

Legislators repeatedly accused the Justice Department of overreaching its authority and undermining both privacy and cybersecurity. Several endorsed Congress passing a law settling the boundaries – something Apple supports – and accused the FBI of trying to circumvent Congress by launching a lawsuit against Apple.

“Can you appreciate my frustration with what appears to be little more than an end-run around this committee?” asked Democratic congressman John Conyers. Representative Zoe Lofgren called FBI demands to weaken Apple’s security a “fool’s errand” that undermined cybersecurity. 

Comey, a well-respected figure in Congress, likened impenetrable digital encryption used to protect customer’s privacy such as that of Apple to a “vicious guard dog”.

“We’re asking Apple to take the vicious guard dog away and let us pick the lock,” Comey said. “It’s not their job to watch out for public safety. That’s our job.”

Trump, Clinton Score Big on Super Tuesday

A pitched battle for the White House between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton moved closer to becoming reality as both leapt further ahead in the battleground states of a marathon Super Tuesday.

On the most important night of the presidential race so far, Clinton ground down the challenge from Vermont senator Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primary. She beat him in seven of the 11 states contested by the Democrats, including the delegate-rich prizes of Texas, Georgia, Massachusetts and Virginia.

Sanders, who won in his home state of Vermont, finished the night strongly, with victories in Colorado, Minnesota and Oklahoma. He has made clear he has a big war chest and insists he will fight all the way to the July Democratic convention.

In the Republican race, Trump won seven of the 11 states, taking a commanding lead in the bitterly fought race for the Republican nomination. 

Maverick Texas senator Ted Cruz won his home state as well as Oklahoma and Alaska, while the establishment’s last, fading hope, Florida senator Marco Rubio, was left substantially adrift, although he did belatedly record his first win of 2016 in Minnesota.

S.C. Chamber Tells Senate to Do Job or Return Salaries

The South Carolina Chamber of Commerce is calling for state senators to take a vote on a roads plan, and wants a penalty if they don’t. “In the business community, you don’t get paid if you don’t do your job,” says Ted Pitts, president of the state Chamber. “So today, what I’m calling for is I want every South Carolina senator to start returning their paycheck back to the taxpayer on a daily basis for every day they fail to start voting on the amendments on the desk.”

He says senators have had a roads plan on their desks for 321 days, so it’s past time for them to vote. The reason they haven’t is because several senators are filibustering to block a vote. Spartanburg Sen. Lee Bright currently holds the floor. “This bill has a tax increase in it, as it came over from the House,” he says. “My concern is even if the Senate strips the tax increase it goes back over to the House, House puts the tax increase back on and the next thing you know you put a burden on the taxpayer. We’ve got the existing funds to fix the roads if we just prioritize road funding.”

Sen. Tom Davis, R-Beaufort, filibustered for the final weeks of the session last year and continued this year until Sen. Bright took over. Both say the $1.3 billion in additional money the state has is enough to take care of road needs without a tax increase.

Other lawmakers argue that most of that $1.3 billion is needed for other needs like education, health care, and law enforcement.

Dog Advocates Fill County Council Meeting Asking for New Laws

If you want to get a crowd to Anderson County Council meetings, put dogs on the agenda. 

Nearly a dozen citizens and out of town animal lovers, including a number from Asheville,  stood up to ask council to pass new animal cruelty laws. The animal advocates, which included another fifty or so that did not ask to speak, were at the meeting to respond to the case of Amara, a stray that had been found in Townville, that had been shot in the head and blinded by her owner who said the dog had become aggressive. 

Heidi Wagner, owner of Boxer Butts & Other Mutts, the rescue organization that took Amara in, said Anderson County’s current animal cruelty were not strong enough to protect animals.

“The citizens are outraged, and we’re ready for a change,” Wagner said to a chorus of cheers and applause by those who remained emotional throughout the discussions.  

The current county ordinances pertaining to animals can be found here.

Anderson County Councilman Tom Allen, who helped write the current animal control ordinances, said that progress had been made, and that he is continuing to work to make those laws better. 

“One thing we’re going to change in this ordinance to say you can’t shoot your dog,” Allen said.  

Allen said the meeting which produced the current county ordinances concerning animals came out of sometimes contentious meetings with local citizens.

“You can’t satisfy everybody, but I think we came up with something good, even though it still needs tweaking,” Allen said. 

Anderson County Councilman Francis Crowder pledged his support to Allen putting “some teeth” in the animal control ordinances. 

Crowder said the issue presented a three-way problem: the ordinance or laws, having enough law enforcement to enforce them, and the magistrate’s court.

On Tuesday, council also:

Approved first reading of an ordinance to establish a policy of non-discrimination for qualified individuals with disabilities for access to Anderson County programs, services, and activities consistent with the requirements of Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act. The ordinance also calls for the development of an ADA Public Notice and ADA Grievance Procedure to include a grievance form for implementation of this ADA Policy.

S.C. Senate Still Stuck on Funding Road Repairs

The South Carolina Senate is starting its week in a familiar place - debating getting more money to the state's roads.

Sen. Lee Bright will be on the floor Tuesday. He took over a nearly two-week filibuster by Sen. Tom Davis. Bright says South Carolina can find enough money to repair bridges and fix potholes without raising the gas tax.

The debate has paralyzed the Senate, which can't debate any other bills with opposition until it handles the roads issue.

Senators could vote to sit Bright down, but that would limit the time they have to debate the roads proposal and more than 200 amendments.

Business leaders are angry at the delay. The South Carolina Chamber of Commerce plans a Tuesday news conference to demand senators end the filibuster.

City Recreation Plan Expansion Meeting Wednesday

The City of Anderson is seeking feedback on the next phase of the city's recreation master plan Wednesday frmo 6-7 p.m. at the Anderson Recreation Center. 

The recreation plan includes expanding facilities and programming. The public is invited. For more information call 864-231-2232.

Candidates Prepare for Super Tuesday Showdown

Super Tuesday is likely to live up to its billing for Donald Trump.

The first day of multiple-state voting looms large in a wild presidential race after early states trimmed the field and the brash billionaire and his army of outsider voters are positioned to send panic through the Republican establishment by tightening his grip on the party's nomination.

Hillary Clinton -- boosted by her huge win in South Carolina on Saturday -- is meanwhile hoping to start locking out her Democratic rival Bernie Sanders, who is giving her a tougher-than-expected challenge, by showing the strength of the Southern foundation of minority voters on which her campaign is built.

Both Trump and Clinton head into the most important day yet in the 2016 election dominating their respective races. A CNN/ORC national poll out Monday shows Trump getting 49% of the Republican primary vote -- 30 percentage points ahead of Florida Sen. Marco Rubio. On the Democratic side, Clinton tops Sanders 55% to 38%.

The billionaire is, however, struggling to shake off a controversy after he failed to disavow former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard David Duke during an interview on CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday. Trump blamed a bad earpiece for the oversight, and he has at other times disavowed Duke, but his rivals were quick to seize on the incident to suggest that he is unfit to be the Republican nominee.

Rubio said the remarks prove that the former reality show star is "unelectable."

"I don't care how bad the earpiece is, Ku Klux Klan comes through pretty clearly," Rubio said during a rally in Tennessee Monday.

Fellow GOP opponent John Kasick also disavowed White supremacists on CNN Monday when asked about Trump's response. 

"I don't know what's in his head," the Ohio governor told New Day's Alisyn Camerota. "All I know is that white supremacist groups have no place in our society and clearly not in the Republican Party." 

Former presidential candidate Mitt Romney also chimed in on Monday.

"A disqualifying & disgusting response by @realDonaldTrump to the KKK. His coddling of repugnant bigotry is not in the character of America," tweeted Romney, who has been actively hitting Trump for days. 

The contests on Tuesday, across 12 states, herald several weeks of nationwide skirmishes that will be decisive in determining who gets to face off for the White House in the fall.

The sheer scale of the battlefield favors Trump, whose ubiquitous media profile means he is known everywhere, and Clinton, whose decades in public life give her an advantage over the lesser-known Sanders. 

Republican Dr. Ben Carson announced he was running for President during a speech May 2 to thousands in Detroit. The retired neurosurgeon and surprise conservative star had been exploring the idea of running for a few months before the announcement.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich joined the Republican field July 21 as he formally announced his White House bid.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont who caucuses with Democrats, announced his run in an email to supporters on April 30. He has said the United States needs a "political revolution" of working-class Americans to take back control of the government from billionaires. 

"This great nation and its government belong to all of the people and not to a handful of billionaires, their super PACs and their lobbyists," Sanders said at a rally in Vermont on May 26.

A total of 595 Republican delegates are up for grabs of the 1,237 needed to clinch the GOP nomination. Sanders and Clinton are facing off for 865 of the 2,383 delegates needed to win the Democratic race.

Republicans are competing for delegates to be awarded Tuesday in Alaska, Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont and Virginia.

Democrats will award delegates in the same states as Republicans, apart from Alaska, and they are also competing in Colorado and in American Samoa.

Upstate Drill Championships Saturday at Civic Center

Pendleton High School and Anderson Lights of Hope will be hosting the second annual Upstate Regional Drill Championships on Saturday, beginning at 9 a.m. at the Anderson County Civic Center. The Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps has units in Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines. These branches will be represented by students who have spent hundreds of hours training for this type of event. 

The Upstate Regional Drill Competition will feature up to 20 JROTC units, an estimated 600 cadets. The cadets are from High Schools located in Southeast United States. Drill competition is designed to showcase military drill precision and foster an atmosphere of team and individual competition, while promoting true sportsmanship.   

Cadets will compete in inspection, regulation, color guard and exhibition events, both armed and unarmed. Schools can partake in all four events. Some of the best JROTC schools and individuals from around the Southeast have been invited to compete in this event.  

Trophies, medals and scholarships are presented to the First, Second and Third place winners in each category. The “Knock Out” event will have one single winner and is an individual competition to see who is best at the event. 

The goal of JROTC is to provide students with a quality character, citizenship, and leadership development program. 

ALL Veterans and active military are encouraged to attend this event.  Members of the National Guard Unit in Anderson, area Recruiters, Clemson ROTC Officers, and other active military soldiers will serve as judges. Council, Senators, Congressmen, Representatives, Governors, and other elected offices have been invited to attend.  

Schools participating include: Wren High School; Southside High School; Berea High School; York High School; Clover High School; East Henderson High School; Belton-Honea Path High School; Irmo High School; Easley High School; Byrnes High School; R-S Central High School; Dorman High School; Greenwood High School; Boiling Springs High School; Westside High School; Chapman High School; and Union County High School. 

The doors will open at 8:00 am and the first event begins at 9:00 am. Awards will be given out around 4:00 pm.  Admission is free, but donations will be taken at the event.

For more information, please contact Jordan LeNeve, Event Coordinator at Anderson Lights of Hope at 803.807.3000 or jordan.leneve@gmail.com.

S.C. to Get $157 Million in Federal Funds for Flood Recovery

South Carolina is receiving nearly $157 million in federal aid to help pay for recovery from floods last fall.

Nearly 62 percent of the funds will go to state agencies. The rest is divvied up among Richland County, Lexington County and the city of Columbia.

“The funds will help to meet remaining unmet housing, economic development, and infrastructure needs that resulted from thousands of homes and small businesses being damaged or destroyed” during the historic Oct. 4 storm, a HUD news release said. 

HUD officials also called for development of plans that better prepare the Midlands area for future storms. 

Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin called the funds “a big win for the citizens of our city.” The city has three months to respond to HUD with an action plan that details how it will use its share, about $20 million, he said.

HUD with review those plans by late spring, spokeswoman Heather Fluit said.

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