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USA – Dams breach, death toll rises after South Carolina flooding

Just In – The rain may have stopped, but South Carolina is grappling with a host of new concerns: Dam breaks. Billions of dollars in damage. And rivers that still haven’t crested yet.

Here’s the latest on the mammoth flooding tormenting the region:

Dam breaks

At least nine dams have breached or failed in South Carolina since Saturday, the state’s emergency management agency said early Tuesday.

One failure, of the Overcreek dam in Richland County’s Forest Acres, sent a torrent of floodwater raging downstream and forced evacuations near Columbia.

Officials allowed water to breach at least one other dam, also in Richland County. Officials conduct these controlled breaches “to prevent a much larger incident and a much larger amount of water escaping from the dam,” emergency management spokesman Derrec Becker said.

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley said more evacuations are likely as flood waters rise in some places.

Death toll rises

So far, at least 13 people have died in weather-related incidents: 11 in South Carolina and two in North Carolina.

In South Carolina, seven people drowned and four died in traffic accidents, the state’s department of public safety said.

North Carolina reported two deaths from traffic accidents, in Cumberland and Jackson counties, a state emergency management spokeswoman said.

– CNN

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