Two missing as floodwaters persist in South Carolina

The Waccamaw was expected to crest at 5 feet above flood stage in Conway, in Horry County, on Thursday.

Catherine Heigel, director of the state Department of Health and Environmental Control, said the state now regulates about 2,500 dams and has monitored 62 during the storm that brought record levels of rain and flooding in South Carolina.

Bill Cahill sprays off his pool deck as discarded furniture and insulation pile up in his yard after the floodwaters receded at French Quarter Creek in Huger, S.C., Wednesday, October 7, 2015.

Youngblood hopes things won’t be as bad as earlier in the week. “Pictures on the walls we’re going to try to get”.

“Basically we lost everything to the water damage”, said Webb. A Sheriff’s Department spokesman said nine people have now been killed in Richland County, all of them in vehicles.

Work crews use an pumps to lower water levels and stabilize a dam…

Deputies went door-to-door at dawn instructing residents of Wildewood to leave, but the mandatory evacuation was softened to voluntary after authorities determined that efforts to keep water from bursting through Beaver Dam appeared to be working.

“Even though we lost everything and stuff got stolen, we can rebuild together and help each other and be each other’s backbones and carry each other through this time because we need each other”, he said. “We still expect the water to start coming down from the Upstate, coming downhill to the Midlands”.

The Emergency Management Division says a reverse 911 call went out just before 10:45 p.m. Tuesday urging residents within a half-mile radius of Beaver Dam to seek higher ground immediately. On Tuesday, volunteers from the group delivered donations to a local high school running a temporary shelter for flood victims. “We had to hold the kids up from really getting wet and everything”, said Singletary, who was visiting for the weekend from nearby Johnsonville.

Along the coast, residents prepared for a second round of flooding as rivers swollen from days of devastating rains make their way toward the Atlantic.

Water from the canal feeds the reservoir at the city’s water treatment plant.

Three days after Lewis, her four children and her mother fled the Meadowfield Apartments in chest-deep floodwaters, she returned Wednesday only to realize that – for now, at least – her family is homeless. Goodwin is resigned to the possibility that their home and belongings are a total loss, but comforted by the knowledge they have the maximum amount of flood insurance. Commissioner Hugh Weathers said he flew over flooded areas several times this week and met with state and federal agriculture officials to begin assessing the damage.

Republican presidential candidate and U.S. Sen.

Tiffany Harding, 28, also arrived at St. Andrews on Sunday with her husband and their 4-month-old son Jermare after water rushed into their Columbia home, toppling the refrigerator and filling their bathtub with foul brown water.

More than 2ft (60cm) of rain has fallen since Friday in parts of the state, which avoided a hit from Hurricane Joaquin but experienced historic rainfall and flooding due to a combination of weather mostly unrelated to that storm.

Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin called the collapse a setback and encouraged the city’s 375,000 water customers to conserve water.

National Guard humvees plow through flood waters on Highway 377…

Historic flooding in South Carolina over the weekend highlighted one of the most challenging facets of municipal water management: stormwater control.

Roads and bridges were taking longer to restore: a few 200 engineers were inspecting more than 400 spots that remained closed Tuesday, including parts of Interstate 95.

The National Weather Service warned of major flooding along the Santee River near Jamestown, the Edisto River near Givhans Ferry and the Black River at Kingstree. That’s a hard thing for individuals and communities to wrap their heads around because they want to get back to normal as quickly as possible.