Charleston streets turn into rivers as Idalia sweeps into the Carolinas

AccuWeather

AccuWeather's Emmy Victor reported live from the scene of worsening floods in Charleston, South Carolina, on the night of Aug. 30, showing the deteriorating conditions in the city.

Transcript

00:00 We begin with Emmy Victor.

00:01 She joins us now from Charleston, South Carolina,

00:04 as Edalia continues to race across the Southeast

00:07 and reaches the Carolinas.

00:09 Emmy, I understand there is some serious flooding

00:11 happening right now in parts of Charleston,

00:14 hopefully not where you are,

00:15 but it looks pretty bad where you are right now.

00:17 -Kevin, things have quickly escalated here in Charleston.

00:23 We are in the thick of what Edalia

00:25 is going to bring to South Carolina,

00:27 and we are along the Charleston Battery right now.

00:29 There is unbelievable flooding taking place,

00:32 all within the past few hours as a result of this storm.

00:36 Just take a look at the street here.

00:37 It looks more like a river.

00:39 And these homes, these beautiful homes along the waterfront,

00:43 people are having a tough time accessing them right now

00:45 because there's just so much water

00:47 covering their neighborhood.

00:49 Now, I want to show you a little bit more

00:51 as to where all this water is coming from.

00:53 Now, of course, we are talking about rainwater,

00:55 but we're also talking a bit more

00:57 about some of the water from the Atlantic Ocean

01:00 coming in over this wall here.

01:03 Right now, we're in the midst of high tides,

01:05 so a lot of this water, because of the heavy winds,

01:08 being blown in, blown over,

01:11 and coming onto the street as well.

01:13 So we're talking about a pretty big mess happening here.

01:17 Multiple streets right now have barricades.

01:19 Police have been driving around,

01:21 trying to block the streets off

01:23 and trying to tell people to stay out of this area

01:26 if they can.

01:27 We do know that these kind of waters can be dangerous.

01:30 If you walk in them, you don't know what's underneath.

01:32 So it's very important to stay away,

01:34 pay attention to what officials are saying.

01:35 But we'll continue to see more of this flooding

01:38 as the rain comes down here in Charleston.

01:40 And we'll be here monitoring the situation

01:43 and giving you reports throughout the evening

01:44 as well as in our morning hours.

01:46 Kevin.

01:47 -You got it, Emmy.

01:48 That is a harrowing situation

01:50 that you are involved in right now,

01:51 and hopefully no one's out on the streets.

01:53 And you make a good point.

01:54 It can happen so fast, that storm surge flooding,

01:57 to go along with three to five inches of rain,

02:00 which has fallen in that area as well.

02:02 And other things kind of factor in

02:04 to make the flooding along the coast even worse.

02:07 -Yeah, I mean, we've got the moon.

02:09 I mean, today's the 30th,

02:10 and you've got the full moon in effect.

02:12 But this is a different moon.

02:13 It's closer to Earth.

02:14 It's a super moon.

02:15 So that is gonna impact the tide,

02:17 making the tide a bit larger.

02:19 It's gonna exacerbate the tides

02:21 and exacerbate those storm surge effects.

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