‘DO NOT venture out!’: Five dead and hundreds stranded as dams break and cause 300 road collisions in ONE DAY in 1,000-year record rainfall across the Carolinas
Hurricane Joaquin missed the East Coast but helped create conditions for the record-breaking storm
Widespread rainfall totals have reached 10 inches for most of South Carolina
State is expected by end of the weekend to have received more rain in three days than it does in an entire season
Two deaths in Fayetteville, North Carolina, and Spartanburg, South Carolina have been linked to the storms
One woman was hit by a falling tree while another drowned in her car
KELLY MCLAUGHLIN
DailyMailUK
4 October 2015
Hurricane Joaquin may have missed the East Coast, but it has helped create a storm that could bring a historic ‘thousand-year’ rainfall to the Carolinas this weekend.
All 4.8 million South Carolina residents were instructed via a Civil Emergency Message by officials to stay indoors and off the roads.
Hundreds of people needed to be rescued on Sunday morning, with more than 50 swift-water rescues happening just in Columbia, while at least 100 people were rescued in Dorchester,
And least five weather-related deaths have been reported since rains began spreading over the Eastern Seaboard.
The Columbia area received the most rain in the state overnight, with up to 14 inches reported in some places since Saturday, forecasters said.
To the southeast, meanwhile, rainfall had exceeded two feet since Friday in some areas around Charleston, though conditions had improved enough that residents and business owners were allowed back into the waterlogged downtown on a limited basis.
The South Carolina Highway Patrol responded to more than 300 collisions around the state in the 12 hours leading up to 6 a.m. It cleared nearly 140 trees from roads.
Charleston residents were instructed to immediately move to higher ground on Sunday morning by the National Weather Service’s office in the region, according to The Weather Channel.
Dorchester and Berkeley counties also remained under a flash flood emergency.
The steady downpour has drawn its moisture from a slow-moving low-pressure system over the Southeast that has linked up to a finger of tropical moisture from Hurricane Joaquin.
The Rest…HERE
