“About that point it was about a foot below the door and when we left it was a foot in the house”.
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“The water isn’t safe and lots of places around the state in which you see this deep water, it is got bacteria inside”.
The storm had dumped more than 18 inches (45 cm) of rain in parts of central South Carolina by early Sunday.
Of the 83 road closures throughout the state early Sunday, 46 were in Charleston, Rousey said. Abandoned cars dotted numerous roads as cars stalled out.
State Rep. Kirkland Finlay begged for help for his district, praising first responders, but saying the state planned poorly when it knew flooding was likely. It was so bad that hundreds of businesses, homes and apartments flooded. Boats have been deployed to reach victims.
Jenkins says there is bad flooding around the entire county that includes Columbia.
Jenkins says his firefighters have seen any serious injuries or fatalities. “Do not attempt to drive into flooded roadways”. A firefighter who went missing during a rescue in Richland County was later found alive and clinging to a tree.
All firefighters available are working. A 75-mile stretch of Interstate 95, a key route between Washington D.C. and Florida is also closed.
“This was a record storm“, he said.
On Saturday, about 11½ inches of rain had fallen in the city, the weather service said.
A deluge roared over the East Coast on Saturday and Sunday, causing blackouts and evacuations and threatening all-time rainfall records in South Carolina and the southern Appalachians.
Creeks and ponds are overflowing. Gills Creek at Columbia has topped its record crest, and many other rivers and streams are expected to do the same.
The seawall at Edisto Beach has been breached, resulting in heavy flooding, SCEMD reported Saturday evening, and a state of emergency has been declared for the town. One person died in North Carolina too. A few localized areas may even exceed that amount.
Added Gov. Pat McCrory of North Carolina: “The tough news for North Carolina and especially South Carolina is continued rain”.
“To put this in perspective, 11.50 inches is 22.5 percent of the annual normal rainfall for the City of Charleston”, the NWS wrote in an update.
Meteorologist Peter Mohlin with the National Weather Service in Charleston said that while the rain had diminished in Charleston Sunday morning, there’s a chance of more showers later in the day.
A surfer catches a wave in the Absecon Inlet off the shore of Brigantine, N.J., Saturday, October 3, 2015, as a strom brought heavy winds and rain to the Jersey shore communities.
The Upstate has not received as much rain. The expenses for this deployment are being paid by South Carolina.
Murfreesboro Fire and Rescue Department’s Special Operations Team is now in Knoxville, Tenn. waiting for deployment to South Carolina. Traffic on I-95 South will be detoured onto I-20 and routed to Columbia.
Power was out in parts of South Carolina and Haley reiterated her call for drivers to keep off the roads over the weekend for their own safety.
South Carolina’s capital city is getting hit hard by the unsafe rainstorm drenching the Southeast.
Local authorities said they’ve carried out about 140 water rescues in one county alone.
“I’m a good citizen and I’m going to obey”, Shirley Jones, of Charleston, said of official advisories to stay home and out of the knee-deep water.
Almost 30,000 customers were without power. Flash flood watches remain in effect into Monday. All of the winds are slamming up against the east coast.
The situation is so extreme that the helpers are in need of help as well.
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The National Weather Service reports Boone Hall Plantation in Mt. Pleasant, which is right next to Charleston, has seen 24 inches of rain so far since Thursday.
