COLUMBIA, S.C. — Many in the Midlands are getting ready for another round of storms after rains and winds rocked South Carolina earlier in the week.
According to Bill Stangler, the Congaree Riverkeeper, the Congaree River is experiencing moderate flooding following Tuesday's storm.
"The Congaree river is a little over 24 feet right now. You can tell just by looking at the Gervais Street bridge, it is high. It's expected to crest sometime tomorrow," he says.
After strong rain from Tuesday ripped through the Midlands, he expects the water to continue to rise.
"Earlier this week we got a little bit of rain here in the Midlands, a couple of inches but several more inches of rain further up in the watershed, so in the update and North Carolina. As that water makes its way down the watershed we see flooding here in the midlands," Stangler says.
The flooding was evident Thursday along the West Columbia Riverwalk, which was completely submerged, reaching the second level of seating along the amphitheater.
"Some important things for people to keep in mind is that flood water is not clean water. I know there are folks that think this looks like a great time to get out, but certainly, if you're a boater, you have to have the skills and the equipment to do something like this. This is not the time to try something that you haven't tried before, Stangler says.
The incoming rain has energy companies paying attention too. Matt Long, a spokesperson with Dominion Energy, says they have crews across the state ready for more rain and possible outages.
"While it's a little unusual to see similar storms like this so close back to back, what's not unusual is our response to each of these storms. Crews are prepared for this, we do year-round preparations," Long adds, "It is an all-hands-on-deck situation. In addition to the work we do year-round, we are staging our crews across our service territory in South Carolina, whether that's in Columbia, Charleston, Aiken. Additional smaller locations, we have crews in North, Langley."
We also reached out to the City of Columbia and sent a statement that reads, "The City of Columbia Public Works and its divisions continue to focus on flood-prone areas. This includes ensuring that our storm drainage is functioning as designed and monitoring the weather patterns. Tomorrow, we will continue to evaluate the weather and the potential need to stage barricades in our flood-prone areas."
Long says one the best steps you can take, is keeping your family safe with an emergency kit.
"Make sure you have an emergency kit at home, should your power go out, you don't know how long that could potentially be, so make sure you have things like batteries, your cellphone is charged before the rain starts falling, make sure you have nonperishable food, bottled water," he says.