South Carolina on Monday remained under siege from rising floodwater that so far have killed at least nine people.
Gerry Broome / AP
President Obama on Monday declared a major disaster in South Carolina, where unprecedented floods have killed at least nine people and left tens of thousands stranded, many of them without running water.
Described as a once in a thousand-year event, the floods also forced mass evacuations and a seemingly unending series of rescues as motorists got caught in rapidly rising waters.
Residents were urged to stay put and avoid traveling. Some 550 roads were closed throughout the state.
"This is dangerous, this is very real," South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley said at a news conference.
Some 40,000 people were without running water and 26,000 people lacked power, she added.
Officials, meanwhile, were closely following a wave floodwaters as they moved across the state toward the coast.
Randall Hill / Reuters
According to the National Weather Service, 17 inches of rain fell at Charleston International Airport from Thursday to midnight on Monday. Charleston was one of the areas that was hit the hardest during the rains.
Sunday was the wettest day in the history of the state's capital city, Columbia, the weather service.
Many of the fatalities involved trapped motorists, with footage showing nearly completely submerged vehicles. Among the dead: A transportation worker overseeing work near downtown Columbia, a woman swept away in her SUV, and a man who drove around a barricade before getting trapped in rising water, the Associated Press reported.
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