COLUMBIA, S.C. — After a week of steady rain, the showers tapered off Monday and an inundated South Carolina turned to surveying a road system shredded by flooding, and in a cruel twist, thousands of residents faced the prospect of going days without running water.
The governor warned communities downstream, near the low-lying coast, that they might still see rising water and to be prepared for more evacuations. More than 900 people were staying in shelters, and nearly 40,000 people were without water.
At least 12 weather-related deaths in two states were blamed on the vast rainstorm, with one of the latest coming when a sedan drove around a barricade and stalled in rushing waters. The driver drowned, but a woman who was riding in the car managed to climb on top of it and was rescued by a firefighter who waded into the water.
“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,” said Kershaw County Coroner David West.
On Monday, the rains moved north into North Carolina and the mid-Atlantic states. The storm was part of a system that dumped an unprecedented amount of rain across South Carolina and several other states.
Satellite images released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration show South Carolina getting drenched by a “fire hose” of tropical moisture. In the animation, Hurricane Joaquin pounds the Bahamas and moves away from the East Coast as a separate area of low pressure spins across the Southeast, unleashing a torrent of water over South Carolina.
Sunday was the wettest day in the history of South Carolina’s capital city Columbia, according to the National Weather Service.
The 16.6 inches of rain that fell on Gills Creek near downtown Columbia on Sunday was one of the rainiest days in the U.S. in the past 15 years.
“The flooding is unprecedented and historical,” said Dr. Marshall Shepherd, a meteorologist and director of the atmospheric sciences program at the University of Georgia.
He said the unique double punch of the upper level low — aided by a “river” of tropical moisture in the atmosphere from Hurricane Joaquin spinning far out in the Atlantic — gave the monster rainstorm its punch.
On Monday, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley said 550 roads and bridges were closed across the state. All will have to be checked for structural integrity, which could take weeks or longer. She said floodwaters will continue to rise in some areas.
“This is not over,” Haley said. “Just because the rain stops does not mean that we are out of the woods.”
