South Carolina starts to recover
Cleanup begins amid warnings of more flooding. Disaster claims 17 lives in area.
Trey McMillian looks over the damage done by floodwaters on a road in Eastover, S.C., on Tuesday. The death toll from the record flooding is at least 17 in the area. About 470 roads are closed, Gov. Nikki Haley said Tuesday. Residents need to remain cautious, she said.
— The family of Miss South Carolina 1954 found her flood-soaked pageant scrapbook on a dining room floor littered with dead fish on Tuesday, as the first sunny day in nearly two weeks provided a chance to clean up from historic floods.
“I would hate for her to see it like this. She would be crushed,” said Polly Sim, who moved her 80-year-old mother into a nursing home just before the rainstorm turned much of the state into a disaster area.
Owners of inundated homes were keeping close watch on swollen waterways as they pried open swollen doors and tore out soaked carpets. So far, at least 17 people have died in the floods in the Carolinas, some of them drowning after trying to drive through high water.
Sim’s mother, known as Polly Rankin Suber when she competed in the Miss America contest, had lived since 1972 in the unit, where more than 3 feet of muddy water toppled her washing machine and turned the wallboard to mush.
Tuesday was the first dry day since Sept. 24 in South Carolina’s state capital, where a midnight-to-6 a.m. curfew was in effect. But officials warned that new evacuations could come as the huge mass of water flows toward the sea, threatening dams and displacing residents along the way.
Of particular concern was the Lowcountry, where the Santee, Edisto and other rivers make their way to the sea. Gov. Nikki Haley warned that several rivers were rising and had yet to reach their peaks.
“God smiled on South Carolina because the sun is out. That is a good sign, but ... we still have to be cautious,” Haley said Tuesday after taking an aerial tour.
Haley said it was too soon to estimate the damage, which could be “any amount of dollars.” The Republican governor quickly got a federal disaster declaration from President Barack Obama, freeing up money and resources.
Facing controversy over his state’s quest for aid after its congressional delegation opposed federal assistance for states affected by Superstorm Sandy in 2012, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Republican presidential candidate, promised not “to ask for a penny more than we need.”
South Carolina was soaked by what experts at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration called a “fire hose” of tropical moisture spun off by Hurricane Joaquin, which mostly missed the East Coast.
Authorities have made hundreds of water rescues since then, lifting people and animals to safety. About 800 people were in two dozen shelters, but the governor said she expects that number to rise.
In Columbia, Ray Stilwell told a harrowing story of escaping his home along Gills Creek, where nearly 17 inches fell in as many hours Sunday.
He was upstairs when his backdoor failed and water rushed in, and was nearly swept away as he tried to make it outside to higher ground. He survived by hanging on to a neighbor’s gate, and then climbing atop a patio table.
“I’m so grateful. If you hear me complain, remind me that I’m lucky to be here,” the 59-yearold schoolteacher said.
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