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U.S. NEWS A3
Monday 5 October 2015
Historic S. Carolina
floods: Heavy rain,
hundreds rescued
SEANNA ADCOX of rising water to a treat-
ment plant. Nearly 30,000
JEFFREY COLLINS customers were without
power at one point.
Associated Press State forecasters said an-
other 2 to 6 inches (5 to
COLUMBIA, South Caro- 15 centimeters) could fall
around the state, and it
lina (AP) — Hundreds of could be Tuesday before
skies are sunny. The rain-
people were rescued from storm around the South-
east has drawn tropical
fast-moving floodwaters moisture from offshore
that’s linked up with an
Sunday in South Carolina area of low pressure and a
slow-moving front.
as days of heavy rain hit Local officials counted sev-
eral hundred water rescues
a dangerous crescendo by mid-morning before
Columbia Fire Chief Aubry
that buckled buildings and Jenkins said in an interview
that there were too many
roads, closed a major East rescues to keep count.
One of the hardest hit ar-
Coast interstate highway eas in Columbia was near
Gills Creek, where a weath-
route and threatened the er station recorded more
than 18 inches (45 centime-
drinking water supply for ters) of rain — or more than
a third of the city’s average
the capital city. yearly rainfall — nearly all
of it in 24 hours. The creek
The powerful rainstorm was 10 feet (three meters)
above flood stage, spilling
dumped more than a floodwaters that almost
reached the stoplights at a
foot (30 centimeters) of four-lane intersection.
Vladimir Gorrin said he
rain overnight on Colum- led his 57-year-old aunt
through floodwaters about
bia, swamping hundreds 7 feet (2.1 meters) deep
surrounding her apartment
of businesses and homes. near Gills Creek. He said
his aunt, Wanda Laboy,
Emergency workers wad- waited several hours after
calling the emergency dis-
ed into waist-deep water patcher, so family came to
help. “She’s very distressed
to help people trapped right now,” said Gorrin, 38.
“She lost everything.”
in cars, dozens of boats Emergency shelters were
being opened around
fanned out to rescue the state for displaced
residents, and President
people in flooded neigh- Barack Obama declared
a state of emergency in
borhoods and some were South Carolina.
Along the coast, rainfall
plucked from rooftops by had exceeded two feet
(50 centimeters) since Fri-
helicopters. day in some areas around
Charleston, though con-
Officials said it could take ditions had improved
enough that residents and
weeks or even months business owners were al-
lowed downtown on a lim-
to assess every road and ited basis.q
bridge that’s been closed
around the state. Sev-
eral interstate highways
around Columbia were
closed, and so was a 75-
mile (120-kilometer) stretch
of Interstate 95 that is a key
route connecting Miami
to Washington, D.C., and
New York.
“This is different than a hur-
ricane because it is water,
it is slow moving and it is
sitting. We can’t just move
the water out,” South Caro-
lina Gov. Nikki Haley said at
a news conference.
One death was reported
in the area on Sunday,
bringing weather-related
deaths to seven since the
storm began days earlier.
People were told to stay off
roads and remain indoors
until floodwaters recede,
and a curfew was issued
for Columbia and across
two surrounding counties.
The capital city told all
375,000 of its water cus- Firemen, from left to right, Norman Beauregard, Kevin Ettenger and Chris Rodgers with the
Georgetown Fire Department, inspect the flood waters at high tide in the historic downtown in
tomers to boil water before Georgetown, S.C., Sunday, Oct. 4, 2015.
drinking because of water Associated Press
line breaks and the threat
