The devastating rain flooding in South Carolina breaks my heart. I grew up in Laurens, where it looks like it only had 6-10 inches of rain this weekend. That amount is alarming enough, when you take in account for all of the saturate ground from previous days of rain. But, when compared to Charleston and other places throughout the state who receive up to 20 inches it seems like Laurens got off easy. The flooding was enough to close schools for Monday—which tells me that there are plenty of flooded roads in my old home town. As I look at the television and internet coverage, it seems as if the entire state is underwater. I know that is an exaggeration but it is definitely a historic event.
One of my biggest concerns about this flooding is the low income areas. Many of these area have no television station to cover their story. The large television stations in the area cannot reach those areas yet and there may be power outages that is preventing even social media from getting the message out. I have been impressed by Clarendon County Fire Department in Manning, SC for their updates on twitter. I have seen many photos for all over the state and expect to see many more in the coming days.
Please pray for the entire state of South Carolina as it deals with an unfathomable situation. Pray for the lower income families that are affected by these floods—many without insurance.
If you have not seen any photos from the flooding, here are some samples that I pulled this evening off of twitter.
Twitter: @AlaStorm_Tracker “77/Bluff Road in #Columbia should not be a river.”
Twitter: @EarlyGameBenji “Just wow. Forest Drive in Columbia. This is devastating.”
Twitter: @WeatherNation “Dramatic video of heart-pounding water rescue. The footage: http://bit.ly/FloodSC”
Twitter @EdPiotrowski “Main street in North Myrtle Beach is underwater.”
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Lead image: Twitter@NWSColumbia