My city is flooding!

South Carolina is under water! Well parts of it anyway... Record setting rainfall and flooding has forced many to evacuate their homes and leave their vehicles stranded. Many creeks have turned into rivers breaking dams all over Columbia and surrounding areas. Buildings along the creeks have been destroyed. They governor called it a "1000 year flood" which I learned is a statistical term, mandatory curfew is being enforced also. It's wild. Is it bad that I keep looking at all of the submerged cars and thinking about the upcoming glut of inventory at the junkyard?

This guys got it figured out though!

Columbia got hammered for sure. I'm pretty sure you guys got it worse than we did down on the coast. At least we have somewhere for the water to go and with no hills it moves slowly.

We still have a few roads closed because of flooding, but most of the roads aren't damaged, just submerged.

Good luck cleaning up the mess.

Curmudgeon is up there and he isn't going to get power back until sometimes tomorrow.

Yeah I think the problem is all of the rivers/lakes/dams. When they get overwhelmed destructive flash flooding occurs. I think you're right about the hills, I guess it funnels the water all into smaller areas. Also, much of Columbia is used to be flood plane forest that was just filled in for development. It's pretty surreal in person driving up to an intersection that you go through every day and seeing it under 5-6ft of water.

My wife's first cousin in Columbia lost her home and car to flooding. She does not have flood insurance.

In reply to spitfirebill:

That sucks.

That does suck. Maybe she can get some FEMA money.. Our Saviour Obama declared it a state of emergency. I'm guessing a lot of people will be in the same boat (no pun intended)

Some parts of Cola was hammered pretty good and some parts look like they only experienced heavy rains. So far, we are doing ok (yard has pretty good drainage to the lake).

With the ground saturated and high winds, the attention has been shifted to the trees.

As long as the Lake Murray Dam holds, I should be OK. We only got about half the maximum rainfall amounts, but it has pretty much rained every day for over a week. Ground is saturated. I got about 2 hours of sunshine today and maybe 3 hours on last Tuesday or Wednesday. Of course SWMBO was flying back into town today and got stuck in Charlotte because they closed the Columbia Airport. If I can get across the Broad River in the morning I guess I'll be picking her up.

I think the I20 bridge over the Broad River is closed.

Toyman01 wrote: In reply to spitfirebill: That sucks.

Sure does. She doesn't live in a normal flood zone. She lives down a hill that was getting a bunch of water off one of the interstates.

AntiArrhythmic wrote: That does suck. Maybe she can get some FEMA money.. Our Saviour Obama declared it a state of emergency. I'm guessing a lot of people will be in the same boat (no pun intended)

I hope so. But remember how well things went in NJ after Sandy.

Good luck. I've seen those big floods first hand twice in the past 10 years. Even when fully funded, recovery takes years.(CNY '05, '11)

That said, some(likely twisted) part of me wants to kayak though flooded downtown every time.

I would bet there are still people from Katrina waiting for their FEMA checks to be delivered. They don't move very quickly.

It's not just the checks that's the problem, it the thieving contractors that appear overnight to harvest the manna.

Take care!

Wall-e wrote: I would bet there are still people from Katrina waiting for their FEMA checks to be delivered. They don't move very quickly.

There are.

Stay safe out there. I was in the upstate when it flooded about 10 years ago. The state is ill-prepared for much of anything with concerns to weather. So don't expect much.

We had a couple of people trying to get back to Spartanburg from Charleston and Florence. To do that, they had to (would have) go through Columbia. One went back roads the whole way. The other had to take a very circuitous route through Columbia.

Stay safe guys, it was evidently a pretty powerful storm.

In other news, they're finding debris from a cargo ship off the Bahamas.

AntiArrhythmic wrote: This guys got it figured out though!

"In defense of donk..."

Suddenly I understand why donks exist!

Stat safe, I hope everything goes well. My area (binghamton ny) got hammered by floods,damage is still being fixed. Houses getting torn down every year by the river, mold is the enemy

My business partner took his wife to Myrtle Beach for her birthday Friday. They left Myrtle Beach Sunday, at 10am, headed for Charleston. 100 miles took 10.5 hours. It was 8:30pm before they got home. I still haven't heard the whole story, but it should be a interesting one.

I, on the other hand, had the privilege to spend today sucking 500 gallons of water out of my parents house with 4 shop vacs. What fun that was.

I know this is trivial relative to what others are going through…I’m just sharing because it’s related.

I live in Southern California and I have a little side business that requires that I paint outside equipment located along the coast between Redondo and Oceanside once per year. I’ve always gotten my work done before the third week in October to ensure I avoided rain. This strategy hasn’t failed me for the 30+ years I’ve been doing it but I got sent packing yesterday.

Again, not to trivialize what others are going through but I was really looking forward to making this year significantly more professional than ever before as I’ve now got a proper truck rather than my RX-8 to work with. Anyway, queue the trombone gameshow loser music…I woke up in Oceanside yesterday to find 20 mph winds and hard rain.

spitfirebill wrote: I think the I20 bridge over the Broad River is closed.

Everything over the Broad, Saluda, and Congaree was closed this morning. Had to go to Newberry and take 34 to Winnsboro, then 200 to I-77. After making it back from Charlotte we had to take the great circle to get to the Cola Airport so we could get her luggage & car. Made it back home much better because I-126 over the Broad was reopened. I-26 over the Saluda was still closed.

Luckily, our house and neighborhood are fine. Never lost power or other utilities, but we are on a "boil water" restriction. That's really good considering how bad some folks have it around here.

Rufledt wrote: Suddenly I understand why donks exist! Stat safe, I hope everything goes well. My area (binghamton ny) got hammered by floods,damage is still being fixed. Houses getting torn down every year by the river, mold is the enemy

And my wife and I are looking at houses in Vestal and Endicott. I'm thinking empty lot, elevated house on stilts above the '11 flood line.

In reply to neon4891:

PM sent :) i have some advice i learned from my realtor.