Broken dams across the state made last year’s historic floods in South Carolina even worse. In Lexington, three dams burst, washing debris through the city and flooding U.S. Highway 1. The city is now seeking to reconstruct the old dams to be more resilient. Tut Underwood has the story. When the rain started falling in Lexington last year, Twelve mile creek quickly filled up -- the stream runs through Lexington. It caused nine homes to be destroyed as well as a business, though they have

It has been over a year since the great floods of October 2015, but many people are still working toward a full recovery. Homes are being rebuilt and St. Vincent de Paul of South Carolina has hundreds of families qualified and waiting for furniture. After providing furniture for more than 100 families, the official House in a Box program is ending in South Carolina. House in a Box was the only program in the state providing new furniture for flood-affected residents. Marilyn Gray, Chair of St.

Margaret and Harry Plexico were away celebrating their anniversary the weekend of October 4 th , 2016. They couple celebrated 36 years of marriage in Charleston. When they returned to their home in Irmo, they found it ravaged by flood. With no flood insurance, the Plexicos made the difficult choice to build a new home elsewhere, using their retirement savings to do so. Both Margaret and Harry had just retired.

When the flood hit South Carolina in October of last year, Cindi Boiter felt helpless to the devastation around her. Talking with her artist friends, she realized they had an itch to respond to the storm somehow. An idea came to her: an art exhibition on the anniversary of the flood. "You can record data, say how much water we had, but there are sensations of experiencing this that there are almost not words for," says Boiter. Cooper McKim reports. On a tree-lined street in Columbia, there's an

The light brown wooden wall cabinets, drawers, stove and oven in the kitchen at the Greenville County building are hand-me-downs. The kitchen supplies came from homes the county bought and then demolished. “If we bought a house and there is something in there that we paid for that can be used and recycled then let's do it.” Assistant County Administrator Paula Gucker said. “Because then I don't have to go out and buy cabinets or countertops.” The homes Gucker is talking about were in flood prone

Hurricane Matthew has come and gone, but major threats still remain. Waterways in North and South Carolina are quickly rising due to the Hurricane's torrential rains. North Carolina has already seen devastating effects and now, South Carolina is starting to feel the impact. Five counties are seeing major flooding, with many communities encouraging their residents to evacuate. Dan Stachowiak is an evacuee from Conway. Cooper McKim follows Stachowiak on his journey through floodwaters to feed his

On the anniversary of last October's historic floods, the sanctuary of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church was full of people gathered for an interfaith service of remembrance. Leaders from 10 churches and synagogues took part, offering prayers, songs, and words of encouragement. The event honored First Responders from Forest Acres, Richland County, and the City of Columbia, along with community members touched by the disaster. South Carolina Public Radio’s Laura Hunsberger has the story. More on this

The One SC Fund was created after the October 2015 rain event and flood and has distributed $2 million dollars to nonprofits to help residents rebuild and recovery from that historic event. Governor Haley said the fund will now expand to help victims of Hurricane Matthew. “What we’ve found very, very helpful was we started the One SC Fund last year, and what that did was allowed neighbors to help neighbors, businesses who wanted to contribute to the state to help those in need,” Haley said.

People and the press have referred to last year’s historic flood as a “thousand year” flood, as if an event of this size wouldn’t happen for another millennium. Not so, say John Shelton of the U.S. Geological Survey and state climatologist Hope Mizzell. Surprisingly, perhaps, each year the odds of a similar flood happening, though remote, are exactly the same. Mizzell says the “thousand year” designation, however, does have a use, as a criterion for designing certain structures which must be

Rafting Creek is a quiet stream that winds behind a cemetery, under a road, then through the woods - it's idyllic. But when rain began last year during the historic flood, the Sumter waterway started to fill up. As the storm continued, the area began to flood, sweeping diagonally over the cemetery, road, and woods themselves. The ground under the cemetery became saturated; the pressure of it caused the caskets to pop out of graves. Three thousand-pound vaults with coffins inside were carried