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South Carolina struggles with floodwaters, scarce drinking water

 
Joe Ziegler, left, Steven Harmer, Alex Sanders, and Alex Scroggins help family and neighbors move a couch from flooding homes on the Waccamaw River near Conway, S.C., on Monda[(Jason Lee | Sun News via AP]
Joe Ziegler, left, Steven Harmer, Alex Sanders, and Alex Scroggins help family and neighbors move a couch from flooding homes on the Waccamaw River near Conway, S.C., on Monda[(Jason Lee | Sun News via AP]
Published Oct. 6, 2015

COLUMBIA, S.C.

The South Carolinians walked along the bridge over the Congaree River, hoods up against the pelting rain, their heads cast downward to marvel at the red-brown water churning violently below them.

They had never seen the river rise like this, up near the tips of the light poles of the river walk park that meanders along its western bank. They had never seen a hole like the one that blew through the side of the nearby Columbia Canal.

"It's heartbreaking," said Terry Carroll, 46, a carpenter and lifelong resident of the state, as he watched from an overlook on the Congaree's east bank.

On Monday, there was much that seemed broken in South Carolina — except for the rain. It was still steadily thrumming over much of the state, in some places for a fifth consecutive day.

Water main ruptures and other problems had left about 40,000 people without water on Monday, Gov. Nikki R. Haley said. Dams had burst and homes had been submerged and ruined, especially in and around Columbia, the state capital.

Leroy Smith, director of the South Carolina Department of Public Safety, said five people had drowned after their vehicles were trapped in standing water. Four other people died in weather-related traffic accidents, he said.

One of the latest to die was McArthur Woods, 56, who drove around a barricade and drowned Sunday night. His passenger managed to climb on top of the sedan, which stalled in the rushing water. A firefighter rescued her after someone heard her screams.

"She came out the window. How she got on top of the car and stayed there like she did with that water— there's a good Lord," Kershaw County Coroner David West said.

In Columbia and elsewhere, emergency crews — who have already conducted hundreds of water rescues and at least 25 by air — were rushing Monday to search more homes, restore infrastructure and power, and deliver drinking water.

The rain — the last throes of a pernicious storm system partly fed by moisture from Hurricane Joaquin — was expected to end today. But Haley, in an early afternoon news conference, warned that South Carolina's desperate moment could be prolonged by record amounts of rain that had already fallen in much of the state and must now flow toward the ocean.

"This is not over just because the rain stops," she said. "It does not mean that we are out of the woods."

In the Columbia area, potable water had become a precious commodity, even for those whose houses had not been damaged. Many residents who had water service had been told to boil it. Others, on private wells, were worried that they would lose electricity, and thus the ability to pump.

"No water?" asked Theresa Bartley, 73, a shopper at the Bi-Lo grocery store Monday afternoon in the suburb of Cayce, to Columbia's southwest.

Correct, came the reply. Sold out.

"Excuse me, y'all out of water, yeah?" asked Weldon Johnson, 58, at the Dollar General next door. Correct. Sold out.

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"We've just got single bottles, hon," said a clerk at the Family Dollar across the street, pointing toward a rare stash of about a dozen bottles at the bottom of a small cooler.

In the suburb of Hopkins, southeast of Columbia, the line for clean water outside Lower Richland High School was already 40 or 50 people deep Monday afternoon when cellphones began to sound their alarms: The authorities had issued a civil emergency message. Speculation spread that a dam had been breached.

The school was one of four water distribution centers that Haley had promised. Six more will be ready by today, she said.

Many of the waiting residents traded stories of what they had seen on the news, or how they were already in battles with their insurance companies about leaking roofs or fallen trees.

They quickly learned that their drinking water problems would not be easily solved, either.

"The deal right now is 5 o'clock," a National Guard captain shouted to the crowd.

The muffled groans began — and then the captain dropped more bad news: He did not know if the water would be delivered in bottles, or whether residents would need their own containers.

"It wasn't expected to be this bad," said Henry Caison, who lives in Columbia. "I would have bought water, but it went out all of a sudden."

By Monday, the heaviest rains had moved into the mid-Atlantic states. Along the Jersey Shore, some beaches devastated by Superstorm Sandy three years ago lost most of their sand to the wind, rain and high surf.

South Carolina authorities mostly switched Monday from search and rescue into "assessment and recovery mode," but Haley warned citizens to remain careful as a "wave" of water swelled downstream and dams had to be opened to prevent catastrophic failures above low-lying neighborhoods near the capital.

Shortly after the governor's news conference, two dams in two separate towns east of downtown Columbia burst Monday afternoon, forcing the evacuation of some neighborhoods.

James Shirer, who lives in the area, saw one of the dams, in the town of Forest Acres, fail and a 22-acre lake drain in 10 to 15 minutes.

"It just poured out," Shirer said.

The 16.6 inches of rain that fell at Gills Creek near downtown Columbia on Sunday made for one of the rainiest days recorded at a U.S. weather station in more than 16 years.

An Associated Press reporter surveying the scene by helicopter saw the entire eastern side of the capital city awash in floodwater. Neither trailer parks nor upscale neighborhoods were spared: One mansion's swimming pool was filled with a yellowish broth.

South Carolina is accustomed to water, but not like this.

The state has 30,000 miles of rivers and streams that mostly run from the Appalachians to the sea, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. It also has another 24,000 miles of "perennial waterways" — streams that are usually dry but can turn deadly in flash floods. Now swollen by a week of rain, they have carved new channels through an aging infrastructure.

According to the American Society of Civil Engineers, 1,048 of the 9,275 bridges were structurally deficient before this storm. Some 550 roads and bridges remained closed Monday, including nearly 75 miles of Interstate 95. The governor said they will need close inspection to ensure they're safe.

Information from the New York Times and Associated Press was used in this report.