Fatalities from South Carolina’s historic flooding on the rise

Residents in South Carolina’s Lowcountry were being warned that water from days of flooding across the state was moving in their direction, and it was going to have major impacts.

“If that spills over into the Santee, that’s going to be extremely problematic”, Haley said.

It’s not just the flood-covered roads that are the problem, officials are also seeing wet soil cause a multitude of issues including shoulders separating from the roads and compromised bridges.

“I believe that things will get worse before they get better”, Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin said Monday.

“Eventually the floods will abate, but then we have to assess the damage, and I anticipate that damage will probably be in the billions of dollars, and we’re going to have to work to rebuild”. Residents anxious there may be more flooding on the Black and Waccamaw rivers. North Carolina had zero dam failures from recent rainfall.

SCEMD and FEMA are both monitoring flood water that is flowing east, and threatening to breach 62 other dams in the state.

“Move to higher ground now”.

A Sheriff’s Department spokesman said nine people have now been killed in Richland County, all of them in vehicles.

Lott said residents were asked to evacuate after a hole developed in the dam and an engineer recommended evacuation. The first priority is the boulder dam, Gentry said because it will create a second, temporary reservoir to feed the plant.

The workers were in town to help fix washed out tracks.

Floods of this magnitude have a one in 1,000 chance of happening, noted the article, meaning it is a 1,000-year rain event.

If you’re safe where you are, stay there.

More than 800 people are still seeking refuge in 26 emergency shelters and numbers could still go up, she said.

The state of South Carolina experienced record rainfall amounts over the weekend and officials expect the costs to be in the billions. A football game between USC and Louisiana State University was scheduled to be played in Columbia on Saturday, but it will instead be played in Baton Rouge.

Officials are warning residents not to try to drive through or around standing water and debris that have covered many roadways. Bottled water and portable restrooms were delivered to the students Monday morning. Although a few service was restored Tuesday in the area around Columbia, around 40,000 homes still lacked drinking water. Collections have been set up all over the state for citizens to bring extra bottled water that will be delivered to the Midlands, according to the AP.

A boil water advisory in effect for all City of Columbia water customers has been lifted in one municipality. Any ice made from water that was not boiled beforehand should also not be used.

Teams are searching the area in rescue boats and dive gear.

A request by City Hall on Wednesday for customers to control how much water they use is “an extra conservative effort…to help us pressurize and replenish the system”, Jaco said.

And the last time South Carolina experienced damages on this scale was not one thousand years ago. Photo: Sean Rayford/2015 Getty Images Ostriches in a flooded pen in Givhans South Carolina.

Sharon Cahill looks over discarded furniture from her home after the floodwaters receded at French Quarter Creek in Huger, S.C., Wednesday, October 7, 2015.

Owners of inundated homes were keeping close watch on swollen waterways as they pried open swollen doors and tore out soaked carpets.

John Shelton of the U.S. Geological Survey says flooding can be a concern for any urban area, with an abundance of concrete covering soil that would otherwise act as a sponge for excessive rains. Mt. Pleasant took in over two feet of rain. Gov. Nikki Haley declared a preemptive state of emergency.

Noting that the danger was still not over, with potential evacuations in seven more counties as the rain trickled down to lower parts of the state, Haley added: “There’s plenty of time to analyze this after”.