Hurricane Dorian slams Charleston, SC, particularly hard. Here’s a look at the damage
While Hurricane Dorian unleashed wind and rain along the South Carolina coast Thursday, the city of Charleston was getting hit particularly hard.
The storm pushed down trees and forced dozens of streets to close as it started impacting the area overnight, local officials said on Twitter.
Near one hospital, water raged down a street as wind blew trees and road signs, according to video from the Medical University of South Carolina.
Other footage taken near the campus appears to show rain falling while a crosswalk is submerged. The video was taken overnight, when Dorian was about 150 miles south of Charleston, according to Storyful, which posted the video.
The tourist hotspot on Wednesday saw 2.41 inches of rain, 10 times more than what normally comes down on Sept. 4.
By early Thursday, firefighters were responding to flood conditions, and tens of thousands of people in the area were left without power. The storm even forced two Waffle Houses to close, a sign that the region isn’t fairing well.
In downtown Charleston, sparks jumped from live wires that were grounded in the storm, according to a tweet from WCSC reporter Rob Way.
The storm caused trees and branches to topple onto roads and near homes, according to social media posts.
In North Charleston, the Hughes family heard a loud boom as a tree slammed into a boy’s bedroom, WCSC reports.
“We have always taken precautions and slept downstairs,” mom Sara Hughes told the station.
Another close call came when a tree fell and took “out a power line” outside the home of a woman who was eating a snack, WCIV reports.
Trees also blocked roads in nearby Dorchester County as limbs spread across lanes of traffic, according to photos posted to Twitter.
Even from behind the wheel, driving conditions looked rough.
Kevin Cornett, police chief in Isle of Palms, posted a photo of a car hood next to a soaked road and a video that seems to show rain falling horizontally outside a windshield.
The eye of Dorian as of Thursday afternoon was north of Charleston, according to the National Hurricane Center.
This story was originally published September 5, 2019 at 2:35 PM with the headline "Hurricane Dorian slams Charleston, SC, particularly hard. Here’s a look at the damage."
