October 19, 2015
EXTREME WEATHER: Rains not seen for 200 YEARS: Two dead, 22 million on flood watch and New Jersey homes already consumed by high tides in bombardment of weekend storms dubbed a 'slow-motion disaster'
By Kelly Mclaughlin For Dailymail.com
Published: 08:56 EST, 3 October 2015
Updated: 02:16 EST, 4 October 2015
- National Weather Service spokesman called the storms hitting the East Coast a 'once-in-200-years rainfall event'
- Around 22 million Americans are on 'flood watch' on the East Coast
- Rains closed roads, waterlogged crops and showed little sign of letting up
- Parts of North and South Carolina have had more than a foot of rain
- More than 15 inches of rain have fallen in Myrtle Beach, SC, since Friday
- The Greenville-Spartanburg Airport in South Carolina recorded 2.3 inches of rain Saturday, smashing the previous record of 0.77 inches from 1961
- Two deaths in Fayetteville, North Carolina, and Spartanburg, South Carolina have been linked to the storms
- One woman was hit by a falling tree while another drowned in her car
- Flood watches and warnings also are in effect in Delaware and parts of New Jersey, Maryland and Virginia
- The search continues for 33 crew - 28 Americans and five Poles - on board a ship that went missing near the Bahamas during Hurricane Joaquin
- Joaquin regained potentially catastrophic Category 4 status Saturday and is speeding up as it moves away from Bahamas but is expected to pass US
A record-setting 'once-in-200-years rainfall event' left 22 million Americans on the East Coast on flood watch as rains have closed down roads, waterlogged crops and showed little sign of stopping.
Meteorologist Ryan Maue of Weather Bell Analytics told NBC New York: 'It's going to be a slow-motion disaster'.
North and South Carolina have been hit the worst, with up to 12 inches of rain falling in Wilmington, North Carolina, on Friday night alone, and two deaths have been reported so far in the states.
President Barack Obama issued a state of emergency in South Carolina on Saturday and state emergency officials said flash flood warnings were issued for numerous counties and that some homes had already been evacuated, including in the coastal county that includes Myrtle Beach.
More than 15 inches of rain have fallen over the popular beach area since Friday, with more expected, the National Weather Service in Wilmington, North Carolina, reported.
South Carolina could get more rain in three days than it normally gets during the entire fall.