Hurricane Florence made landfall near Wilmington on September 14, 2018. In Conway, the Waccamaw River didn't peak until twelve days later. It crested at a record 21.2 feet on September 26, more than three feet above flood stage, and it took another eighteen days after that before the gauge dropped back under the 11-foot mark. By the time the river finally receded on October 14, the storm that caused all of it had been gone from the news cycle for weeks.
That gap matters more than it sounds like it should, because South Carolina's flood disclosure rules are built around a different assumption: that a flood is something a seller remembers as one event, tied to one storm, with one obvious date. In Conway, the river doesn't work that way. If you're buying or selling a home near the Waccamaw, the honest answer on a disclosure form can still leave out the flood that actually happened.
A River That Floods on Its Own Schedule
The Waccamaw's behavior during Florence is documented in enough detail to reconstruct almost day by day. The gauge at Conway crossed its 11-foot flood stage on September 16, two days after landfall. It kept climbing for ten more days, breaking the previous record of 17.9 feet set by Hurricane Matthew back in 2016, before finally topping out at 21.2 feet on September 26. Water stayed above flood stage until just after midnight on October 14, twenty eight days after it first rose out of its banks.
During that stretch, the city closed Riverfront Park and Waccamaw River Park, and shut down the boat ramp beside the Conway Marina, the standard playbook whenever the Waccamaw runs high. Those closures aren't unusual events. They're the city's normal response to a river that regularly takes weeks, not days, to finish rising and falling.
That timeline is the whole problem with treating a flood like a single dated incident. A homeowner who was out of town in mid-September and came home to a dry house might reasonably believe the storm passed them by, without realizing the water kept climbing behind them for another two weeks.
What the State Actually Requires You to Disclose
South Carolina's Residential Property Condition Disclosure Statement, administered by the state's Real Estate Commission, asks sellers to state whether they have actual knowledge of flood hazards, wetlands designations, or flood insurance affecting the property. In 2023, the commission added more specific language to that section. Sellers are now asked whether any FEMA or NFIP flood insurance claims were filed on the property during their ownership, and if the answer is yes, the form requires them to write in the approximate dates, a description of the events, the nature of any repairs, and the claim amounts.
Every South Carolina county is within a flood zone, this isn't particular to the coast.
That's how Nick Kremydas, CEO of the South Carolina Association of Realtors, described the intent behind the change when it took effect. The goal was straightforward: give a buyer enough history to see whether a property has flooded once or repeatedly, and when.
It's a genuinely useful addition. It's also, by its own wording, limited to what the current owner actually knows and actually experienced while they owned the house.
Why the Question and the River Don't Line Up
Two things about the Waccamaw make that limitation sharper here than in most places.
The first is the delayed crest itself. A seller who owned the home through Florence in 2018 might genuinely believe nothing happened, because the worst of it arrived while the storm was old news, not while it was making landfall. Someone answering the disclosure question honestly, from memory, can still round down the risk without meaning to.
The second is ownership turnover. The form only asks about claims filed during the current owner's tenure. If a house flooded in 2018 under a previous owner, and that owner never filed an NFIP claim, or filed one and then sold before the current owner bought in, none of that history is required to show up on today's disclosure. The form isn't asking what happened to this house. It's asking what this specific seller remembers happening to them.
Layer the flood zone maps on top of that and the picture gets more complicated, not less. Horry County's flood insurance data, as of August 2026, shows roughly 40 percent of the county's flood insurance claims have come from properties in Zone X, the designation that sits outside the federally mapped high-risk area. Zone X also holds the largest share of active NFIP policies in the county, 28,675 out of just under 60,000 total, which tells you plenty of homeowners in that zone are already carrying coverage. Countywide, NFIP has paid out $338.2 million across more than 12,500 claims since 1978. None of that is Conway-specific, but it's the same river system feeding those numbers, and it's a reasonable proxy for how often a flood zone label undersells what actually happens when the water gets here.
Put together: a disclosure form bounded by one owner's memory, a river that floods on a schedule that doesn't match the storm calendar, and a flood zone system that a large share of claims come from outside of. None of those three things is dishonest on its own. Stacked, they can leave a buyer with a clean-looking disclosure statement on a house that has, in fact, taken on water.
What This Means If You're Buying or Selling Near the Water
None of this means the disclosure form isn't worth reading closely. It means it's one input, not the whole picture, especially for anything within a few blocks of the river or its tributaries.
A few things worth doing before you write or accept an offer on a Conway property near the Waccamaw:
- Ask when the current owner bought the house, and compare that date to 2018 and 2016. If they weren't the owner during either event, ask directly whether they know how the property fared.
- Pull the historical gauge data for the Waccamaw at Conway through the U.S. Geological Survey's water data site. It's public, it's specific to this stretch of river, and it shows exactly when the water crossed flood stage in past years, not just when a storm made headlines.
- Check the property's flood zone status and base flood elevation through the City of Conway's Building Department rather than assuming a Zone X label settles the question.
- Request an elevation certificate if one exists. It's a more concrete data point than a seller's memory of a specific storm season.
- Treat "no flood insurance claims filed by me" as an answer bounded by that seller's ownership, not a statement about the house's full history.
None of this is about assuming the worst of a seller or a property. It's about recognizing that a disclosure form filled out honestly can still leave gaps when the thing it's asking about doesn't behave on a predictable timeline.
Quick Answers Before You Write an Offer
Does a Zone X designation mean flood insurance isn't worth carrying? Not necessarily. Roughly 40 percent of Horry County's flood claims, as of August 2026, have come from properties in Zone X. A meaningful share of claims still originate there.
Is a septic or well inspection connected to any of this? No, that's a separate due diligence step from flood history. Flood disclosure covers water coming onto the property from outside, not the property's own water and wastewater systems.
Does the disclosure requirement apply if I'm buying vacant land instead of a built home? According to the South Carolina Real Estate Commission, the Residential Property Condition Disclosure Statement applies to residential real property transactions as defined under South Carolina law, generally single-family dwellings or small multi-unit transfers. Land purchases without an existing home follow a different set of considerations, and it's worth asking directly which disclosure obligations apply to the specific transaction you're in.
If you're weighing a home near the Waccamaw, or getting ready to sell one, it's worth pulling the gauge history and the city's flood maps alongside the disclosure form rather than instead of it. Robin Shomaker knows this stretch of river well enough to help you ask the right follow-up questions before you're under contract. Let's Connect.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.
