Senator: South Carolina flood damage could top $1 billion
It could — take until the weekend for the threat of flooding to ease in storm-tattered South Carolina, where a senator warned Wednesday of a potential billion-dollar cleanup bill, two more people died in the floodwaters and the flagship university sent what was supposed to be a home football game 700 miles away.
Rivers rose and dams bulged as storm water 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 24-48 hours.
“We’re holding our breath and saying a prayer,” she said.
U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham warned the disaster could “break the bank” of federal emergency funds, possibly topping more than $1 billion.
At least 19 people in South Carolina and North Carolina have died in the storm, while many survivors returned home to discover they’d lost everything.
Wendy Dixon burst into sobs after realizing her wedding album and dozens of photos of her two sons and three grandchildren had been destroyed.
Overcome with emotion and barely able to walk across the waterlogged carpet in her Columbia apartment, Dixon grasped the arm of a niece.
“Everything is gone!” she wailed. “My clothes and all can be replaced. But my little things, my pictures, are all gone.”
It was another anxious day of waiting for floodwaters to recede around the capital city. About 1,000 residents near the compromised Beaver Dam were told to evacuate Wednesday morning, though the order was lifted several hours later after crews shored up the dam.
Haley said 62 dams across the state were being monitored, and 13 had already failed. She said South Carolina was fortunate that those represented only a small fraction of 2,000 or so dams regulated by the state.
At a news conference, Haley and other officials were asked repeatedly about whether the state had spent enough in previous years to maintain dams and other infrastructure.
“I think the analysis of this can be done after” the danger from the floods passes, she said in one testy response.
But Graham said the federal lifeline must be treated with care to avoid a “pork-laden monstrosity” like the federal government’s aid package after Superstorm Sandy hit the Northeast in 2012. He warned state and county officials not to use the disaster as an opportunity to ask for money unrelated to flood damage.
He also said it would take weeks to get a reliable damage assessment.
“We’re talking hundreds of millions (of dollars), maybe over a billion,” he said while visiting a shelter in Columbia.
And in an extraordinary move for the football-crazy South, the University of South Carolina announced it was moving Saturday’s football game against No. 7 LSU some 700 miles to Baton Rouge, La.