COLUMBIA, S.C. — It could take until the weekend for the threat of flooding to ease in storm-tattered South Carolina, where a senator warned of a potential billion-dollar cleanup bill, two more people died in the floodwaters and the flagship university moved a home football game 700 miles away.
Rivers rose and dams bulged as stormwater from days of heavy rains made its way to the Atlantic Ocean, causing a second round of flooding downstream.
Gov. Nikki Haley paid a visit to the coast, which she said would still be in danger for another 24 to 48 hours.
“We’re holding our breath and saying a prayer,” she said.
U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham warned that the disaster could “break the bank” of federal emergency funds, possibly topping more than $1 billion.
In another image of the storm’s otherworldly toll, state officials said caskets have popped out of the ground in 11 instances in six counties.
At least 19 people in South Carolina and North Carolina have died in the storm, while many survivors returned home to discover they had lost everything.
Wendy Dixon burst into sobs after realizing her wedding album and dozens of photos of her two sons and three grandchildren were destroyed.
Overcome with emotion and barely able to walk across her waterlogged carpet, Dixon grasped the arm of a niece inside her apartment. “Everything is gone!” she wailed. “My clothes and all can be replaced. But my little things, my pictures, are all gone.”
Haley said 62 dams across the state were being monitored, and 13 had already failed. However, she said South Carolina was fortunate that those represented only a small fraction of 2,000 or so dams regulated by the state.
