Is Johns Island built-out? At 84 square miles, it’s the fourth-biggest island on the East Coast, about a third of it in the city of Charleston and within a self-imposed Urban Growth Boundary (UGB).

There were more questions than answers at the public meeting Thursday about the flooding problems in the Church Creek drainage basin in West Ashley.

It is now painfully clear that Charleston faces an existential crisis from storms and flooding. Irma provided the latest evidence that even a tropical storm can inflict extensive damage on a poorly prepared community.