Pee Dee should brace for second wave of flooding, SC officials say

Residents in the Pee Dee and Horry County should prepare now for a second wave of flooding, state officials warned Wednesday.

The Waccamaw, Lynches, Little Pee Dee and Great Pee Dee rivers all are forecast to crest this weekend and into early next week.

“Rivers are still rising and will continue to rise for a majority of the week,” the S.C. Emergency Management Division said in a news release.

The agency said Pee Dee and Horry County residents should be prepared to leave their homes.

Residents should avoid flooded roadways and never move or drive around barricades, agency spokesman Derrec Becker said. They also were warned that floodwater poses various risks, ranging from injury from floating and submerged debris and structures to threats from chemical hazards and infectious diseases.

A task force has been sent to the Hartsville area in Darlington County to assist with search-and-rescue operations, if needed, Becker said. Other teams remain on standby ready to respond.

Darlington County Fire District Chief Ricky Flowers said the task force was sent as a precaution, given record flooding along Black Creek.

“We had two dams that were pretty much at their capacity, and we wanted to be prepared for a worst-case scenario,” Flowers said, adding homes downstream — 100 or more — could be affected if the dams burst. But, he added, “We are in much better condition (today) than we were a couple of days ago.”

As of early Wednesday afternoon, the State Fire Marshal reported search-and-rescue teams had assisted with 518 evacuations due to flooding over the last 24 hours.

The S.C. Department of Transportation also has offered the use of school buses to officials in Horry County to aid with evacuations in Conway, where the Waccamaw River is forecast to break its record high-water mark, set during Hurricane Matthew two years ago.

Members of the Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Department assisted Horry County authorities with evacuations Wednesday near the Aberdeen Golf Course off of S.C. 9.

The Weather Service forecasts the Waccamaw’s level near Conway will hit more than 20 feet by Monday morning, 9 feet above flood stage and 2.5 feet above the 2016 record.

Crews on Wednesday were working to finish installing a flood-control device designed to keep the U.S. 501 Bypass open to traffic to and from Myrtle Beach.

About 235 roads across the state were closed as of Wednesday afternoon because of flooding, up from roughly 200 the day before. Many of the road closings were in Chesterfield, Dillon, Florence, Horry, Marion and Marlboro counties.

Transportation Department and Emergency Management officials did not have estimates Wednesday as to when roads would become passable again or the cost to repair damaged roads.

“We haven’t incurred most of the damage yet,” Becker said. “The rivers have to crest. The floodwaters have to recede. And the roads need to be assessed, as does all infrastructure in the state.”

The S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had conducted 264 post-storm assessments of regulated dams as of Wednesday morning. Ten dams — in Chesterfield, Darlington, Marion and Marlboro counties — have breached, up from six the day before.

Of the dams that failed, half posed a “significant hazard,” meaning their failure likely will not result in the loss of life but may damage infrastructure, said DHEC spokesman Warren Bolton.

Other updates Wednesday included:

• The state has a three-day supply of food and water for 30,000 people at a distribution site in Florence, and a separate supply for 3,000 people in Conway and Myrtle Beach. The state also can call on FEMA for added supplies. That federal agency has moved food and water to Florence.
• The National Guard has 2,581 personnel deployed across the state to aid in rescue-and-recovery efforts.
• About 800 electric customers in the Pee Dee region, including about 560 Duke Energy customers and 187 Pee Dee Electric Cooperative customers, were without power.
• 12 emergency shelters were open across the state, including two shelters for evacuees with special medical needs. Additional shelters are on standby to handle potential evacuees from Horry and Marion counties.

This story was originally published September 19, 2018 at 11:38 AM.