At Least Nine Dead, Hundreds Rescued In South Carolina Flooding

Twitter Facebook LinkedIn Email Reddit Telegram

South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley said that nine people were killed in unprecedented flooding in the state.

The flooding in South Carolina is so serious that President Obama has declared a statewide emergency. He has also signed a disaster declaration on Monday night to free up federal funds for eight South Carolina counties.

BYPASS THE CENSORS

You can unsubscribe any time. By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

More trouble ahead as the state’s emergency management agency reported on Tuesday that at least nine dams have breached or failed in South Carolina since Saturday.

RT reports:

The aid, which is available to state and local governments as well as affected individuals, includes grants for temporary housing and home repairs, as well as low-cost loans.

“We are at a 1,000-year level of rain,” South Carolina Governor Haley said at a press conference. “That’s how big this is.”

The rain in South Carolina, courtesy of Hurricane Joaquin, is so intense that it is statistically expected to happen only once every thousand years.

“We are at a thousand year flood level…” Catastrophic flooding in South Carolina: http://t.co/IbwekuFhpU pic.twitter.com/1c6AGg2Eh5

— Good Morning America (@GMA) October 5, 2015

The state got over two feet of rain this weekend, and Sunday was their wettest day in recorded history. The old record was set on July 9, 1959.

“We’ve got enough supplies. We just want to be able to tell people where to get them and how to get them,” Governor Haley said at a press conference on Monday.

Shewent on to say that schools and roads will be closed until they are verified to be safe.

“What you’re going to see is when all the water goes away, there’s going to be some serious damage to the roads.”

Columbia Metropolitan Airport has so far seen 6.87 inches of rainfall, according to Mashable.

Eleven aircraft, eight swift water rescue teams and 600 National Guardsmen are part of search and rescue efforts, the governor said on Sunday. So far more than 200 water rescues have taken place, the state’s emergency management agency said, according to CNN.

A grim reminder of this disaster’s deadly effects also came in the form of coffins surfacing and floating through flooded graveyards.

“Thousand-year-rainfall” unearths coffins in South Carolina: http://t.co/EBDQsFMugl pic.twitter.com/OdVgYPHkI2 — inhabitat (@inhabitat) October 5, 2015

Hurricane Joaquin also brought devastation to the central and southern islands of the Bahamas on Friday and Saturday before continuing to rage off eastwards.