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Oct 2nd-5th ULL OBS Major Flooding in SC Midlands/Low Country


Hvward

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Downtown Charleston is a real mess. CofC has been closed basically since Thursday evening except for a few hours. It was closed Friday for classes and is closed today (Monday).

 

Inland (Goose Creek, Summerville) is especially bad, but there's pockets of flooding all over the Charleston metro. Just about everywhere.

 

Columbia probably has it worse than Charleston. We have several members from that area and the rainfall has been unbelievable there. They've had to open up floodgates at Lake Murray.

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My husbands grandmother lives in Hemingway. She has been away on a trip and suppose to come in tonight. Not sure if she'll make it to her house or not. We have no clue if she has any flooding issues at her house. You're right about it being economically depressed and smaller in population so, their isn't much media attention on them.

 

So very sad and absolutely true.  Williamsburg County is 900 square miles of many people living at or below poverty level, and it's somewhere around 75% minority.  I'm sure it's devastated - it has higher rain totals than almost anywhere in the state at this point, and half the county's swampland barely above the water table, not to mention the extremely slow moving Black River.  

 

The media is likely to largely ignore it and places like it because Charleston and Columbia are simply easier to cover.  And the rural residents there aren't necessarily in a position to make themselves heard.

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Finally got power back on late yesterday evening. Was out for about 18 hours..Power was out here longer than during the ice storm..which seems incredible to me considering how much damage there was from that storm.

 

News reports that as many as 33,000 were without power at the height of it in georgia. The wind damage from this storm was much bigger deal than i think most, including myself, expected.  I knew there was a chance at some due to the saturated soils from winds possibly getting to 35 to 40mph in gusts but nothing like what happened. I don't  don't remember ffc ever really saying much about it, much less issuing any advisories on it...unless i totally missed it. GSP on the other hand was on top of it from the start and issued wind advisories in advance, mentioned winds getting to 40mph  and warned about the possible number of trees going down with saturated soils so major kudos to them.

 

I speculated at the time the particularly high winds i experienced, gusts into the 50 to 65mph range,  had something to do with the leading edge of that band of heavy rain and strong low to mid level winds feeding it. In fact, every time the edge got closer the winds would pick up considerably and when it retreated the winds were noticeably lighter. This happened exactly like this several times. I know many reported gusts well into the 40s in ne ga/upstate but i Wish i knew how widespread the excessively  high winds i experienced were. But the leading edge  set up right along the savannah river or just west of it for quite a long time and there aren't many official reporting stations in this area.  I think at one point i saw a station report a near 50mph gust, maybe anderson but i'm not sure.

 

I had 6 large trees cut down just last week out of fear of winds or ice eventually taking them down and that sure looks like a good decision because I'm not sure if 2 of those 6 would have survived that. Talk about remarkable timing. Still quite a mess to clean up though...but certainly less than some near by who had trees blown over, severely damaged  or broken in half.

 

It seems like bad taste to even mention it though given the historic flooding and destruction in south carolina. I'm blown away by the images and rain reports out of that state. To think this storm will out do hugo in damage is incredible. I feel so bad for those who lost everything and the untold stories of the endless number negatively impacted... and to think it's still raining is sickening honestly.

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Pretty amazing video of them opening the 3rd floodgate on Murray. Water levels are continuing higher, but the rate has slowed. 

 

 

https://www.lakemurray.com/Lake_murray_water_level.aspx

The lake is still close to that 360' mark   :(    If memory serves right, they built the "backup" due to the water undercutting the dam because of the pillars driven into the ground, from the walking bridge.  1969 was the last time a floodgate was open

 

 

In other news.....mby is now up to 14.25" for this event and the sprinkles continue  ;)  

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Black River at Kingstree is looking close to breaking the all time record when it crests tomorrow. The forecast for the level it crests at is just unreal. I really hope they got everyone out because the river runs right next to town.

Water level and forecast from NWS:

post-12588-144405771244.png

A couple pictures I found from yesterday afternoon, more rain has fallen today.

post-12588-144405772724.jpg

post-12588-144405773923.jpg

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And to think Williams-Brice is gonna host 80,000 people for a football game in about 120 hours. That seems like a sidenote right now.

The entire state is in a huge mess for HS football. Down in the Charleston area there's some teams playing Tuesday and Wednesday night, then perhaps Monday before going back to Friday night the next week.

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Black River at Kingstree is looking close to breaking the all time record when it crests tomorrow. The forecast for the level it crests at is just unreal. I really hope they got everyone out because the river runs right next to town.

Water level and forecast from NWS:

attachicon.gifkins1_hg.png

A couple pictures I found from yesterday afternoon, more rain has fallen today.

attachicon.gifkingstree.jpg

attachicon.gifCQe57OCVAAAefdH.jpg

 

My guess is that they didn't get everyone out.  It's a pretty poor county, so not a lot of resources (employees and equipment).  There's been extremely sparse information coming out of there aside from a few citizen photos and a video that were taken early on, and pretty much radio silence for the last 24+ hours.  The county has hardly any web presence, and the town newspaper doesn't seem to know too much about what's going on either (of course they are likely flooded out of house and business as well).  I'd imagine a lot of people there are just sitting tight on whatever high ground they can find.

 

I have not been able to find any information about any outside assistance going in to help them.  There have been random evacuation rumors circulating since Saturday, first that it was voluntary, then that it was mandatory if there was water in your home, and then that it was mandatory for a 6 square mile area of town, but there has been no actual official statement about this latest evacuation that I've been able to find.  The town newspaper posted on their Facebook page early this morning that the sheriff's office would issue a statement, but that was hours ago and I haven't found any indication that they followed through on it.

 

On the plus side, with the river, swamp and lakes so close, MANY people there own flat bottom boats for recreation.  The citizens there will help each other before anyone else can get in.

 

What they are really going to need is help and support getting back in and cleaning up.  Places like that will be overlooked for the shinier, larger cities.

 

ETA:  There's a photo from yesterday on Facebook of a bakery across the street from the town's hospital on Nelson Street, and the bakery is flooded.  SCDOT shows Nelson as flooded and closed.  I don't know if the hospital itself is flooded.  It's small, only 25 beds.  But again they have no web or social presence so it's hard to say what's going on there, if they have flooding or power or even clean water.  Who knows.

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My guess is that they didn't get everyone out. It's a pretty poor county, so not a lot of resources (employees and equipment). There's been extremely sparse information coming out of there aside from a few citizen photos and a video that were taken early on, and pretty much radio silence for the last 24+ hours. The county has hardly any web presence, and the town newspaper doesn't seem to know too much about what's going on either (of course they are likely flooded out of house and business as well). I'd imagine a lot of people there are just sitting tight on whatever high ground they can find.

I have not been able to find any information about any outside assistance going in to help them. There have been random evacuation rumors circulating since Saturday, first that it was voluntary, then that it was mandatory if there was water in your home, and then that it was mandatory for a 6 square mile area of town, but there has been no actual official statement about this latest evacuation that I've been able to find. The town newspaper posted on their Facebook page early this morning that the sheriff's office would issue a statement, but that was hours ago and I haven't found any indication that they followed through on it.

On the plus side, with the river, swamp and lakes so close, MANY people there own flat bottom boats for recreation. The citizens there will help each other before anyone else can get in.

What they are really going to need is help and support getting back in and cleaning up. Places like that will be overlooked for the shinier, larger cities.

ETA: There's a photo from yesterday on Facebook of a bakery across the street from the town's hospital on Nelson Street, and the bakery is flooded. SCDOT shows Nelson as flooded and closed. I don't know if the hospital itself is flooded. It's small, only 25 beds. But again they have no web or social presence so it's hard to say what's going on there, if they have flooding or power or even clean water. Who knows.

Cherokee, thanks for the updates. I'm a Pee Dee boy and just hate to see this stuff. I fear that we are going to hear of fatalities in Williamsburg County just because of a lack of resources. And scarily, that river forecast just keeps creeping up over the past 12 hours.

Sent from my SM-G920I using Tapatalk

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Cherokee, thanks for the updates. I'm a Pee Dee boy and just hate to see this stuff. I fear that we are going to hear of fatalities in Williamsburg County just because of a lack of resources. And scarily, that river forecast just keeps creeping up over the past 12 hours.

Sent from my SM-G920I

 

They finally put out some info just now.  They have some National Guard and State Troopers helping, although the article implies that is state-wide and doesn't say how many are in Williamsburg County.

 

The Black moves so slowly it's going to take days and days for it to go down.  Slowest river I've ever seen.

 

http://www.kingstreenews.com/article/20151005/KTN01/151009946/1161/KTN

 

ETA:  Sounds like Haley has stepped in and they are doing evacuations.

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The lake is still close to that 360' mark :( If memory serves right, they built the "backup" due to the water undercutting the dam because of the pillars driven into the ground, from the walking bridge. 1969 was the last time a floodgate was open

In other news.....mby is now up to 14.25" for this event and the sprinkles continue ;)

What is the max level before the dam is breached?

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