Videos emerge that show true power of 1,000-year flooding
Digital Reporter
Tuesday, October 6, 2015, 10:13 AM - In terms of rainfall and flooding, the worst is over for South Carolina, but as flood waters recede, the crisis remains.
In fact, in some areas, the rivers haven't quite crested, and the staggering amount of water that has flooded them is enough to cause dams to break. CNN reports nine dams have either been breached, or failed altogether, since Saturday.
At least one breach, upstream from the state capital, Columbia, triggered evacuation warnings, but officials are also carrying out controlled breaches to ease the pressure on the system and head off larger catastrophes (authorities in Saskatchewan and Manitoba have occasionally had to perform a similar maneuver during particularly bad spring floods).
Before/After pic of a street under water in Columbia, SC. H/T @chrisdolcewx pic.twitter.com/NtD5xONnDA
— Alex Wallace (@TWCAlexWallace) October 4, 2015
At least 11 people have died in South Carolina as a result of the floods, with an additional two in North Carolina.
Aside from the deaths, floods have caused billions of dollars in damages to homes and businesses, driven thousands from their homes, and washed out numerous roads, hundreds of which remained closed Tuesday.
Sometimes the effects are eerie. The floodwaters at a cemetery in the town of Summerville were enough to unearth at least two coffins, which Mashable reports were recovered.
From: Kim Boston - Caskets floating in the Springfield Cemetery, Samaria Road in Orangeburg. #SCFlood #SEFlood pic.twitter.com/VQm2h4GAjT
— Daniel Bonds (@Daniel_Bonds) October 4, 2015
The sheer amount of rain was due to a convergence of systems that conspired to funnel steady, intense rainfall into South Carolina for several days.
Meteorologists are calling this a thousand-year flood event, meaning there would be a 0.1 per cent chance of it happening in any given year.
As it is, the sheer amount of rain is mind-boggling. While some of the worst-hit communities escaped with a "mere" 200 mm, the famous Myrtle Beach got more than 500 mm, and a station in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, recorded an astounding 683 mm.
When the numbers get that high, it can be hard to wrap your head around it.
By comparison: That's a little under half Vancouver's entire annual average, more than twice Calgary's and just a millimetre more than Toronto's.
And as the waters recede over the coming days, a crisis lasting just a few days will take months to recover from.
