Fourteen dead as South Carolina gripped by historic flooding

South Carolina grappled with the damage wrought by record rainfall, as the death toll from widespread flooding rose to 14 on Tuesday and residents braced for more evacuations in areas near swollen waterways and dams across the state. "We are still in the mode that the next 36 to 48 hours will be volatile," Governor Nikki Haley told a news conference. The governor said she could not yet estimate the cost of the devastation but noted "the damage is going to be heartbreaking for a lot of people." More than 2 feet (60 cm) of rain have fallen since Friday in parts of South Carolina, which avoided a hit from Hurricane Joaquin but experienced historic rainfall and flooding due to a combination of weather conditions mostly unrelated to that storm.

Continue reading...