Still in Shelters Across South Carolina; 2 More Bodies Found

Authorities said the death toll in South Carolina has risen to 19, as they’ve discovered two contractors have died while responding to the flooding.

At least 17 people have died from the floods, nine of them in Richland County.

“We’ve found their cars but we haven’t found them”, he said.

“I’m fearing the worst on that”, Lott said.

When asked how long it will be before the canal is temporarily shored up, the director of the South Carolina State Emergency Management Division Kim Stenson said “I think in the next day or so they should be able to do that”. What I will tell you is this is a thousand-year flood and we have thousands of dams in this state. That aid likely will come with requirements that bridges and dams be built to stronger, more expensive standards. Unfortunately we had 13 that failed.

If Congress decides to consider a special relief bill, South Carolina could face a different kind of payback. “But in a situation like this, we are extremely grateful for where we are today and the response and coordination of the people here to, most importantly, protect the public”.

“When you have floods of this magnitude, it is really wonderful we have not had more issues than we’ve had”, Haley said.

She said the disaster “could be any amount of dollars”. That supply was threatened earlier this week when a portion of the Columbia canal collapsed.

The two men who were the subject of the rescue operation were later found dead. Deputies in Richland County, South Carolina, said Wednesday the pair’s truck plunged into the water at a 20-foot gap where the road had washed out.

Also on Wednesday morning, more than 1,000 residents near the state capital, Columbia, were ordered to evacuate while workers tried to reinforce the Beaver Dam. Three other men in the truck survived. “The last thing we want to do is cry wolf”. He was getting ready to request big barricades be put up instead of the small traffic cones to make sure no one drove on the intact pavement, supported by nearly nothing.

As they waited for floodwaters to drop, officials also struggled to preserve Columbia’s water supply. Only residents who live in the flooded areas are being allowed in to check on their property, or ride out the flood.

Ironically, finding safe drinking water has been a challenge.

Heigel said there are 18 boil advisories in the state, with Columbia being the largest affected population.

“We had so much rain but the primary thing we were experiencing was the water table coming up through the bottom bubbling up from beneath the flooring”, Georgetown County resident Scott Youngblood told the Associated Press.

Officials had closed a 70-mile stretch of the interstate, from Florence to the intersection with I-26.

Crumbling roads, bridges and dams and aging drinking water systems plagued South Carolina long before the historic floods of the past week. Widespread flooding from Tropical Storm Irene in August 2011 severely damaged infrastructure in 225 of Vermont’s 251 towns, wrecking more than 300 bridges, 500 miles of state highways and 2,200 segments of town roads.

She said officials are still assessing the damage and trying to get roads and bridges repaired. She said the most-traveled roads will be addressed first in repairs. Haley says she doesn’t have a dollar amount right now for the damage done by the historic rains and flooding in the state.

South Carolina Gov. Haley was asked if she takes exception to a local newspaper calling the dam safety “flawed”. “We are a people of faith. These weather events may try and knock us down, but all they do is bring our people closer”.