News - Local/State

Thursday, Aug. 28, 2008

Fay to blame for flooding, damaged bridges in York, Chester counties

Overnight lakes appear in yards

Perry Bishop stayed up all night and watched the water rise. On Wednesday morning, his pastures were flooded and the drive of his Chester County home was covered with about 4 feet of water.

"I don't know when it's going to stop, and my house is going to be overtaken," said Bishop, 43, who lives off S.C. 97 about a half-mile south of the Chester County line.

Torrential rain from the remnants of Tropical Storm Fay caused scattered flooding across York and Chester counties early Wednesday and rendered a rural bridge impassable.

But the storm -- which left in its wake some of the worst flooding in decades across the Charlotte metro region -- was easier on York County than on other areas, said Emergency Management Director Cotton Howell.

"The most significant damage is a bridge in western York County that's impassable," Howell said Wednesday, referring to a span near the town of Sharon. "We have a tree down here and there."

The massive flooding at Bishop's home was caused by Turkey Creek, which runs near the 43-acre property where he raises horses and miniature donkeys.

On Wednesday, the horses stood on a small hill surrounded on three sides by water. His fences were submerged and his driveway was blocked by an overnight lake of standing water about 75 yards wide. But his home, on an elevated area, was not affected.

"This is the worst ever," Bishop said about the flooding, which has "been over the driveway, but not this bad." He said the water in his front pasture was up to 8 feet deep in places.

"If the second rain comes in, that's when I'm going to be hurting," he said. "That's when I'm gonna start cutting fences to get the horses out."

By Wednesday afternoon, he said, the water had begun to subside.

Howell said there were scattered reports of yards flooding, but no emergency situations or evacuations.

Dennis Hall, 42, said he found the front and back yards of his home in Rock Hill's Squire Estates neighborhood covered with water on Wednesday. "I had to carry my little girl on my back to get her out of the house, the water was so deep," Hall said.

Howell said the damaged bridge was on River Road near the town of Sharon, close to the Cherokee County line. Inspectors from the S.C. Department of Transportation reported damage to the pilings and closed it to traffic.

A second bridge in eastern Cherokee County, on Secondary Road 209 about five miles northwest of the town of Hickory Grove, was closed after it partially collapsed.

Further inspection will be done to both bridges after flooding subsides, the DOT said.

In other parts of the Charlotte region Wednesday, roads were closed, residents were being evacuated from houses and trapped cars, and power was out to thousands of customers.

Authorities in Charlotte say they estimate about 100 houses were damaged or destroyed by the flooding, which Wayne Broome, director of emergency management in Mecklenburg County, said was at a "100-year-flood" level.

Dozens of houses also were damaged or destroyed by severe flooding in Cabarrus County, N.C.

No injuries were reported.

In York County, despite two days of drenching rains that dumped more than 6 inches of water on the area, drought conditions still exist across the region, weather officials said. And Lake Wylie is projected to remain below full pond, something it's done for quite some time under the past year's drought.

"It definitely helps ease the drought, but it's not going to completely erase it for the majority of areas," said Jeffrey Taylor, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

"Most areas in our forecast area got at least 3 or 4 inches. Some got up to 9 inches. There's still some stage of drought over our whole area."

Taylor said a long, slow rain would have been more helpful than this latest batch of rain to ease drought conditions.

"It would have stayed and seeped into the ground," he said.

"But it still helps quite a bit."