27 Inches: South Carolina Under Water, I-95 Closed!
Here's a list of selected rainfall totals from the Carolina flooding (Friday through Monday):
Cainhoy, SC: 26.88" Kingstree, SC: 24.75" Calabash, NC: 21.63" Millwood, SC: 20.75" Gills Creek, SC: 20.28"
South Carolina DOT is reporting an incredible 393 road closures and 165 bridge closures today.
There are many more totals in the WPC list -- I wanted to pick some totals that were geographically representative... for example, everybody says this is a "South Carolina Flood" but Brunswick County, North Carolina, (where I vacation every year) also received over 20 inches of rain!
I also didn't want to downplay the flooding in Columbia and Sumter County, SC, which for some reason isn't represented well in the WPC list (those reports include: 20.75'' at Millwood, 19.32'' at Shaw Air Force Base, 17.14'' at Chestnut Oaks Middle School and 14.88'' in Sumter). The map below from the NWS in Greenville-Spartanburg, SC, shows additional rain gauge amounts:
For additional details on rain amounts, water rescues, fatalities, dam breaks and more, consult our live timelines from Sunday-Monday or Friday-Saturday. We also have these two related stories up:
- What Led to the Historic Flooding in South Carolina -- Yes, Hurricane Joaquin, but also a Canadian high pressure system and moisture from the equator!
- US Coast Guard Continues to Search for Survivors After El Faro Ship Sunk Amid Hurricane Joaquin -- Unfortunately, a ship may have been lost at sea during Hurricane Joaquin.
By the way, the storm is being called a "1000-year storm." We talk about what that means in our story, but you can read more about what this means at USGS, and make your own graphs by location at this NOAA website. The short of it is: This doesn't happen too often. The chance of getting 25 inches of rain in Charleston is shown at the star below on the graph:
