“Move to higher ground now. Act quickly to protect your life.” Those are words used when flash flood warnings are issued for your area. Other not very heartwarming phrases they say are, “flooding is already occurring,” and “travel is dangerous and not advised.”
The rain is currently falling at a rate of around 2" an hour here. Some places it’s an even heavier rate. It’s after 3AM and I’m awake because I always stay up during violent weather, under the assumption that at least one person should be awake in case action needs to be taken.
Our place is at the top of one of the highest hills around. Even with such a location, I did all I could ahead of time to stave off potential problems, but they did a poor job of grading in relation to where the house is located. It makes a good part of the field drain toward the house. There are plenty of ponds and creeks around us, but all the ones that I’m aware of are lower than here. I’ve only been taking actions based on my known immediate area.
My night got more interesting after I began to type this post. I’ll tell about that in a follow-up. Mostly, I’ve been thinking about the other members who also live in SC. @rayrose , @c5tiger , and @Kate The areas all of them live in are experiencing similar extreme amounts of rain on already saturated ground. Much of the state had already had a week and a half of rainy days before this onslaught. The ground was saturated before the crazy rain started. I’m hoping that all you Carolinians, even the ones from NC, will let us know how you’re faring.
I’m glad the electricity is gone, and I’m glad that I have clothes drier. Bananas are supposed to like plenty of water. Mine are getting PLENTY this weekend.
Best of luck to you and your family. Looks like you and all your area are dealing with some tough weather conditions. In my area it has been damp and cool with only light rain. Do you have any damage to your fruit trees or is it too early to determine. Stay safe. Bill
Heh heh. The fruit trees are going to have to wait until daylight and lighter rain before I go wading out to the field to look at them. Right now it’s raining hard again and the sky is just showing a glow before daybreak. I don’t think there is any direction that I can go from the house to those trees that I won’t have to slog through water. It’s been the house that I’ve had to do what I could for during the night.
I was up at 3 AM too! I was going to email you Muddy, see how things were doing down in your neck of the woods. Glad you went ahead and updated us.
Life kinda sucks here. I think we’ve gotten about 6-8 inches over the last 2 days, and like Muddy said, the ground was already saturated before it started.
The animals are miserable. The horses insist upon standing out in the middle of the field, rain soaked. Thank goodness it’s a bit warmer now- yesterday it was raining like this and was 50 degrees, and ponies were shivering. NOT a good thing.
Sheep are doing better, at least they have the sense to get out of the rain but they still look pretty sad.
The fruit trees are what I’m worried about. I really, really hope this doesn’t kill them. I have ~350 2-3 year old trees, some in pots and some in raised beds. I’m really hoping the fact that they are in raised beds and pots helps. Ground is saturated up to about 1/2" about soil level (and I’m on high ground!). If we just had a few hours without rain it would drain away and I’d be fine. But when it all comes at once, it’s not good. Really hoping I don’t end up with a bunch of dead trees as I’ve invested quite a bit of time in them, and have grafted them all with pretty awesome varieties that I was really hoping to try someday! I know cherries don’t like wet feet, and I have 50 of them in the raised beds. I guess my question is can they deal with wet feet for a few days and not die?
So… I’ll be moving in the coming year, but this just solidifies that I believe I’ll be going further inland!! (although the only other time I’ve experienced flooding like this was when I lived in the midwest, so I know it can happen elsewhere!).
You poor folks got the brunt of it. The bright side is your trees probably have enough energy to get through winter by now, even if they defoliate from the stress- a week or two of submersion shouldn’t kill the roots, although I don’t have experience with this kind of flood during this point in your season.
I was wondering when a trop-storm or hurricane would finally make an appearance this season- a week ago I was worried I wouldn’t be able to move any trees from my nursery this fall because of drought. We were getting week after week of clear, warm days and I don’t know if I’d ever seen it so dry in late Sept. Recent storms have brought 3-4 inches here- just enough to provide a deep soaking.
Where I am Hurricane Andrew dropped about 13 inches overnight some time ago. Drainage on my site is so good I had no idea until I tried driving to work and roads were closed left and right. I had a 32 gallon trash bucket that was over half full of water that I only noticed later in the day. Soil like mine can suck during even short drought but certainly helps drain floodwater.
I hope those of you with flatter land and heavier soil make out all right. Please keep us all posted. .
I’m so glad you checked in, Kate. I’ve heard that there a lot of downed trees up that way. Downed as in uprooted.
Well, I’d say our severe drought status has ended. I have a 16" tall cylindrical bucket on the back deck that I emptied Friday evening. It’s full to the top. Most of that accrued overnight. So, I don’t know what the total was, but it has more than filled that bucket. The laugh’s on me because, going by the forecasts for the local area, I thought the worst of our own rain was over by nightfall last night and that I had over prepared. Wrong!
We have a 20x40 pool just outside the back of the house. It’s only about 6’ away in one section. I had started letting water out on Thursday because it was already above the top of the skimmer from the previous rains. I could only let so much out at a time because the side area where the waste flows was already saturated. So, I just kept letting out what I could periodically through Friday. Got it down so that I had about a foot of allowance between the water level an beginning of the apron overhang, which is several inches. I wound up letting some of the new accumulation out yesterday between rains, even though there was already standing water in the path it drains to. That time I only had about 8" to spare, but the forecast was 2"-4" overnight. Plenty to get through til morning.
When I started to type the first post it was raining heavily. When I heard it slow down a bit, I tried to look outside to see how much leeway was left, but I couldn’t tell. So, I went out and still couldn’t see where the water started, even as I stood next to the pool. I went to put my hand down along to overhang to measure the difference by feel. The reason I couldn’t see how far down it was was because it WASN’T! The water had come to the top edge. I spent the next hour out there in rain that had gone back to pouring and got that water pumped out to a safer level. I was wishing I had a raincoat and boots to wear.
The story continues from there, but we’re all fine. I’ll finish it later.
In the meantime, I’m really glad to hear you’re safe where you are.
I left that area on Saturday. My sister took me to the airport and we didn’t know what to expect.It wasn’t too bad on Hwy 17 to Charleston, only water across the road in one place.Having an F150 helped.
The previous day,my sister had to pick her daughter up in Wilmington, NC and had a tough time.They said a shark was swimming around in a gas station’s parking lot.
I heard that houses were floating away in Charleston.
It looks like better weather is coming. Brady
Kate, someone’s barn washed away here and they’re looking for an escaped horse in my neighborhood. An equestrian center in Blythewood on the other side of Columbia is under water and they are working on getting the horses out of there. Thought you’d be interested in that.
Some dams have broken, some bridges washed out, too many people are trapped in vehicles
Muddy, I heard Columbia got hit bad. We got bad flooding here in Greenville but we are some of the higher elevation in the state, so I would think it just has to get worse as you go down. Really hope everyone’s people and pets (and fruit trees!) make it through this thing ok.
Oh no, I know a few of those barns in Blythewood, used to work for one actually. I really hope all the horses are safe! If it’s the barn(s) I’m thinking about–those are some high dollar horses in there. I really, really hope all the pets that are lost in this thing return home safe and sound. Breaks my heart.
Muddy and Kate, my heart goes out to you. I have watched the rain in your area on television. What mess. Go slowly. I’m sure your trees will be fine, list to Alan, he knows. Our rain just stopped in RI this morning. We’ve had a constant three day long rain. My small pond has overflowed and we’ll have to wait a few days before the lawns are mowed. I was more concerned about gusts. Be safe friends!
Muddy and Kate, I am so sorry to hear you’re getting inundated. I called my daughter and son-in-law in Maryland, and they are getting pummeled as well, but not nearly as badly as you all are. We actually had some very much needed rain today out here in parched S. California. So sad there is such a huge disparity in rainfall. If you all could just sent about 1/2 of what you’ve been getting our way, we could all call it even.
Thank you everyone! I think it’s over here in Greenville but I think Columbia is set to get even more rain today and tomorrow. It’s why I’d like for Muddy to update us on how Columbia is doing.
Patty, yes, I’d love to send you and CA ALL the water you want!!!
It’s funny, I was talking to my dad saying we got around 10-12 inches of rain this week (that’s speculative, my rain gauge committed suicide, so I really don’t know, but that’s my guess, from talking to others near here). He lives in Colorado and commented that that would be a year’s worth of rainfall for them!
I just got my power and phone back on and it’s a mess.
My yard is under about 6 inches of water and I’m not complaining as
my next door neighbor’s down stairs is flooded. A good friend who lives
on the other side of town lost his house and both cars. They’re all under
water. So far nine people have died, most were drowned in their cars.
It’s finally stopped raining, but the rivers are all swollen and most of the
roads are closed. We just received an evacuation notice to go to a high
school that’s 10 miles from here, but most of the roads are supposed to
be closed or unsafe, so all of my neighbors have decided we’re better off
where we are. We all have bottled water as the water is unsafe to drink
and we