{"id":11202,"date":"2015-10-06T08:01:09","date_gmt":"2015-10-06T15:01:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/fire-hose-of-moisture-hits-s-carolina-12-killed\/"},"modified":"2015-10-06T08:01:09","modified_gmt":"2015-10-06T15:01:09","slug":"fire-hose-of-moisture-hits-s-carolina-12-killed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/fire-hose-of-moisture-hits-s-carolina-12-killed\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Fire hose’ of moisture hits S. Carolina; 12 killed"},"content":{"rendered":"

COLUMBIA, S.C.<\/strong> \u2014 People across South Carolina got an object lesson Monday in how you can dodge a hurricane and still get hammered.<\/p>\n

Authorities struggled to get water to communities swamped by it, and with waterlogged dams overflowing, bridges collapsing, hundreds of roads inundated and floodwaters rolling down to the coast, the state was anything but done with this disaster.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a Hugo-level event,\u201d said Maj. Gen. Robert Livingston, head of the South Carolina National Guard, referring to the September 1989 hurricane that devastated Charleston. \u201cWe didn\u2019t see this level of erosion in Hugo. … This water doesn\u2019t fool around.\u201d<\/p>\n

Much-feared Hurricane Joaquin missed the East Coast, but fueled what experts at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration called a \u201cfire hose\u201d of tropical moisture that aimed directly at the state. A solid week of rainfall killed at least 12 people, sent about 1,000 to shelters and left about 40,000 without drinkable water.<\/p>\n

One of 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe came out the window. How she got on top of the car and stayed there like she did with that water\u2014 there\u2019s a good Lord,\u201d Kershaw County Coroner David West said.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

South Carolina authorities mostly switched Monday from search and rescue into \u201cassessment and recovery mode,\u201d but Gov. Nikki Haley warned citizens to remain careful as a \u201cwave\u201d of water swelled downstream and dams had to be opened to prevent catastrophic failures above low-lying neighborhoods near the capital.<\/p>\n

\u201cSouth Carolina has gone through a storm of historic proportions,\u201d Haley said. \u201cJust because the rain stops, does not mean that we are out of the woods.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, shortly after the governor\u2019s news conference, authorities evacuated an area on the northeast side of Columbia after a dam on Rockyford Lake burst around 2 p.m. Monday.<\/p>\n

James Shirer lives in the area and said he saw the dam fail and a 22-acre lake drain in 10 to 15 minutes.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just poured out,\u201d Shirer said.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s swimming pool was filled with a yellowish broth.<\/p>\n

South Carolina is accustomed to water, but not like this.<\/p>\n

The state hosts 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 \u201cperennial waterways\u201d \u2014 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.<\/p>\n

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 on Monday, including nearly 75 miles of Interstate 95. The governor said they will need close inspection to ensure they\u2019re safe.<\/p>\n

Some towns were entirely cut off. About 60 miles southeast of the capital, all four roads leading into the county seat of Manning were closed, isolating 4,000 people. Many smaller communities in Clarendon County are in a similar predicament, Sheriff Randy Garrett said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m the sheriff of a bunch of islands,\u201d Garrett said.<\/p>\n

The National Guard\u2019s Blackhawk helicopters were the best \u2014 and only \u2014 way to reach some places, and authorities were just starting to identify \u201cvulnerable areas that may not be completely obvious,\u201d said Livingston, a two-star general.<\/p>\n

The Blackhawk crew including Chief Warrant Officer 2 Antonio Montgomery finished its rescue training just in time for the storm, and quickly put it to use.<\/p>\n

Some people waved towels at them, begging for rescues; Neighbors would then step out onto their porches, too, asking to be lifted to safety.<\/p>\n

Montgomery, 34, served in Iraq 10 years ago, but there is something different about helping a place where his crew has lived, he said. \u201cIt\u2019s our home. We\u2019ve all had friends and families who have lost things.\u201d<\/p>\n

At a Red Cross shelter in Rowesville, Nyshambi Vega of Holly Hill, about 50 miles northwest of Charleston, settled onto a cot with her boys \u2014 ages 2, 1 and 5 months \u2014 and hoped for the best.<\/p>\n

Like most of her neighbors in her public housing complex, the 24-year-old mother had hoped to ride out the storm. Then the water reached her front door, and the toilet backed up. They were rescued Sunday morning by firefighters who walked small boats through the parking lot.<\/p>\n

Along with her boys, all she managed to carry with her was a bag stuffed with diapers and baby formula. The water came up to her chest, and she struggled to hold the baby over her head as she waded to the boat.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis feet were dipping into the water as we tried to get into the boat, so it was scary and dangerous,\u201d Vega said Monday as the infant snoozed, content, in her lap.<\/p>\n

Most of her neighbors got out with nothing but the clothes they were wearing, she said, \u201cAnd the clothes we had on our backs were wet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Safe water, however, was in short supply: In Columbia, officials brought in bottled water and portable restrooms for the 31,000 students at the University of South Carolina, and firefighters used a half-dozen trucks and pumps to ferry hundreds of thousands of gallons of water to Palmetto Health Baptist Hospital.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was extremely gracious and kind,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Bett Williams\u2019 family has lived below Rockyford Lake for nearly a half century; she said she and never seen flooding there before. But on Monday, she had only a few moments before fleeing with her 12-year-old daughter and 9-year-old son to a shelter at the nearby AC Flora High School.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe grabbed our cellphone chargers and the dog,\u201d she said. \u201cWe still hope and pray it will be OK.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

(This version corrects a previous story that said Gills Creek had the single rainiest day in the U.S. since 1999. Based on a more complete review, federal weather officials say Gills Creek had one of the rainiest days in the last 15 years, but it was not the rainiest.)<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Bruce Smith in Charleston, South Carolina; Mitch Weiss in Greenville, South Carolina; Susanne M. Schafer in Columbia; Jonathan Drew in Raleigh, N.C.; Meg Kinnard in Blythewood, South Carolina; and Seth Borenstein in Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

COLUMBIA, S.C. \u2014 People across South Carolina got an object lesson Monday in how you can dodge a hurricane and still get hammered. Authorities struggled to get water to communities swamped by it, and with waterlogged dams overflowing, bridges collapsing, hundreds of roads inundated and floodwaters rolling down to the coast, the state was anything […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":11203,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[65],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-11202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-nation-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11202"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11202\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11202"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=11202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}