Flooding shuts down city

First it rained. Then it really rained.

Almost 4 inches fell on peninsular Charleston in the 24-hour period leading up to Friday's rush hour, according to the National Weather Service. Streets were flooded, some with moving water. Cars were getting stuck.

At the height of the deluge, shortly before 6 p.m., city officials took the unprecedented step of shutting down all roads leading into the peninsula.

"It wasn't a decision made lightly," said Mark Ruppel, public information officer for the Charleston Fire Department. "The minute the decision was made, we notified every media outlet and we were on the phone with all the hospitals."

City police, fire and rescue officials felt that preventing people from coming onto the peninsula when so many of its roads were impassable was the best way to save lives, Ruppel said. "Not only the lives of the people who might come into the city and get caught in moving water, but the lives of our fire and rescue personnel, too."

"We answered 24 calls for water rescues during the event," Ruppel said. "Three were in residences, the rest were in vehicles."

People were stuck in the water or, in some cases, their cars were being moved by the water, he said.

City officials had heeded the flash flood warning for Friday issued by the Weather Service. The city's emergency operations center was activated at police headquarters on Lockwood Drive. The Charleston County Volunteer Fire and Rescue Squad's swift-water rescue team was called in.

About 6 p.m., Charleston County EMS was dispatched to Hagood Avenue and President Street for a report that two physicians were holding on to a man who was in danger of being sucked into a storm drain. When EMS arrived, the physicians had pulled the man to safety and he was OK, an EMS operator said.

EMS responded to several water rescue calls during the storm, but no one was injured, the operator said.

In addition to the slowed traffic and the stranded motorists, the heavy rain brought raw sewage bubbling onto the street in the City Market area.

Frank Yates of the Charleston Water System said there was a broken "clean-out cap" in a sidewalk on a sewer line coming from a business on North Market Street. Yates said the line might not be repaired until Monday, but when an inspector checked the line Friday, the seepage had stopped because the rain had slacked off.

Charleston Mayor Joe Riley was monitoring the rescue efforts and traffic problems during the storm. He said city employees were taking fresh photographs of problem areas Friday to support the city's case for a $146 million federal stimulus grant that would pay for significant drainage improvements.

Though the peninsula received a lot of rain, 3.93 inches according to the Weather Service, Mount Pleasant and the Isle of Palms got even more.

Mount Pleasant police were closing a number of impassable roads. Flooding was reported along U.S. Highway 17 frontage road and on Long Point Road.

Isle of Palms Fire Chief Ann Graham said some roads on the island were flooded, and a number of residents were unable to get to their driveways during the storm.

Heavy rain and snow across the South meant flight delays at Charleston International Airport on Friday afternoon. Early Friday evening, 15 of 32 total arrivals at the airport were listed as delayed by at least a half-hour, and 10 of 42 total departures were listed as delayed by more than 45 minutes.

Charleston County Aviation Authority spokeswoman Becky Beaman said passengers should check with airlines to make sure their flights have not been canceled and, if possible, arrive sooner than they would in normal conditions. Beaman said the delays started at noon Friday and should continue today.

And the Holiday Festival of Lights at James Island County Park was closed Friday night.

Donna Gueldner, chief parks and recreation officer for the Charleston County Park and Recreation Commission, said as of Friday afternoon three-fourths of the electrical switches for the light displays were underwater.

"Mainly it's a safety issue," Gueldner said. "We can't turn on the electricity with the switches for the displays underwater. And, unfortunately, it's not even high tide yet."

Many of the parking lots were underwater also, Gueldner said. But the festival will be open for business as usual today. "Once it stops raining, the water drains pretty quickly," she said

Lance Cpl. Robert Beres of the S.C. Highway Patrol said the patrol handled a number of weather-related collisions, including a six-car pileup on Interstate 26.

Other roads closed by flooding were Halfway Creek Road between Steed and Shulerville roads, and Aviation Avenue at Fain Street, where the already wet roads were flooded by a broken fire hydrant, according to the Highway Patrol.

Jonathan Lamb, a Weather Service meteorologist, said the intense rain in the afternoon was caused by a surface low-pressure system that had moved into a position off the Georgia coast. "There was relatively thin band of very intense rainfall," Lamb said. "In this case, that particular band set up right over Charleston and Mount Pleasant."

Today should be drier and cooler, he said. "We should have lows around 40 in the morning and it won't get much higher than in the lower 50s, but it will be dry."

Allyson Bird, Brian Hicks, Alan Hawes and David Slade contributed to this report. Reach David W. MacDougall at macdougd@postandcourier.com or 937-5655.