Water from the canal usually flows into a water treatment plant, but the breach has that water flowing into the Congaree River instead. And if that wasn’t enough, the city had plans to pump water directly from the nearby Broad River.
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As of noon Wednesday, 409 roads and 141 bridges are closed across the state.
Columbia Police Chief Skip Holbrok is asking people to stay out of damaged areas They say onlookers are blocking emergency crews that are trying to help, and there’s even been cases of tempers flaring between victims and these people.
The governor would not estimate the financial toll from the record rainfall and flooding.
Mayor Steve Benjamin and City Utilities and Engineering Director Joey Jaco said Thursday that the system will not be shut down for repairs, but the boil water advisory that’s been in effect all week will remain for most of the county.
Sylvester Butler waits with dogs Bella and Goldie on one side of the water on the road talking on the phone to his mother on the other side of the water in the Oatland community of Georgetown County, S.C., on Thursday, October 8, 2015.
However, she said South Carolina was fortunate that those represented only a small fraction of 2,000 or so dams regulated by the state.
The latest on the rainstorm that pounded parts of the East Coast.
Road and bridges in at least 26 counties have been affected.
Thirteen miles of Interstate 95 are still closed in Clarendon County.
The Black River crested Tuesday upstream at Kingstree at a record 10 feet above flood stage, town officials said.
The National Weather Service said Friday that a low pressure system will stall near the South Carolina coast this weekend. The rain is expected to taper off on Sunday. He warned state and county officials not to use the disaster as an opportunity to ask for money unrelated to flood damage.
Concerns about additional inundation in four coastal counties and more rain had officials on guard Friday, nine days after a state of emergency was declared because of historic rains that washed out roads, swamped hundreds of homes and killed 17 people in the state.
City officials continued to implore citizens to conserve water and prioritize water use.
The City of Columbia continued Friday to attempt a temporary fix of the Columbia Canal, one of the city’s primary drinking water sources that suffered a 60-foot breach during the catastrophic flooding earlier this week.
The accident happened just before 3 a.m. on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the recovery continues.
Officials are warning people in South Carolina to be alert for those who say they are working for the Federal Emergency Management Agency and do not have proper FEMA credentials. The university said more than 80,000 fans expected for the game in Columbia would have put too much stress on weakened infrastructure.
The call for vigilance comes as the state is seeking to recover from widespread flooding in several areas of the state caused by heavy rains that first began falling a week ago. “They don’t need to be sitting in flooded areas for 12 days”.
And as they cleaned out their homes, the city’s water system, which has been on a boil water notice since the flooding, got help from two neighboring systems.
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Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson scheduled a visit during the day Friday to the major cities of Columbia and Charleston to meet with officials and get a look at recovery efforts from what South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley has described as a 1,000-year flood. While skies are clear again after past days of rain, residents along or near the coast are readying as rain-swollen rivers reach the sea.
