Historic Flooding "One in a Thousand Year Event"

South Carolina - Oct 3rd-6th. 2015

A rare meteorological setup in the southeastern USA caused a tremendous amount of moisture to be driven from the Atlantic Ocean inland, right over South Carolina. The result... A LOT of rain, all in one place, for days. Some areas received over 600mm of rain. Knowing that this was likely going to be an extreme event, a team from The Weather Network was assembled and we headed straight into the flood zone. Myself, Mark Robinson and Jaclyn Whittal spend four days in Columbia and Charleston, South Carolina, documenting this historic event. Here's a radar animation of the rain that caused all the flooding.

A home in Columbia, SC flooded out.	This local had a good sense of humor about the flood.	In the thick of things, filming with The Weather Network.

Paddlers, taking advantage of the flooding to get around. In many areas, boat was the only reasonable means of transport.	A title loan business that has partially collapsed in the floodwaters.	Power poles leaning over. The ground around them was washed away.

This Subway restaurant isn't going to be open again for a while!	One of many flooded out cars.	A main road, cut off by a torrent. Columbia, SC.

There were over 300 road closures during the flooding.	It rained almost non-stop for 4 days, all over the same area.	In some places, entire neighborhoods were under water.

This was as far as we could drive. Beyond here, we would have needed a boat.	Residential streets turned into rivers.	This boat floated into the front yard of this home. I don't know where it came from.

More flooded homes and vehicles.	Fire dept. keeping watch over a flooded roadway.	Gills Creek, was high enough to overtop the bridge and completely cover the road.

"Do Not Enter"... Good advice.	Flooded and damaged home.	A flooded vehicle that has already been examined by the search and rescue teams.

This fabric shop had all of its contents flushed out by the raging water.	Half submerged pickup truck.	The damaged title loan building.

South Carolina had never seen flooding like this before.	The damaged title loan building. The ground under the foundation had been washed away.

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