Florence: rivers rapidly rise, roads closing, danger looms
Check here for updates as Florence arrives in the Upstate
Rivers expected to crest Tuesday, flooding to worsen
6 p.m. | Columbia
Though Florence passed through the Upstate with little more than a whimper, its roar continued to echo in other parts of South Carolina as swollen rivers left their banks and flooded more than 125 roads.
In the lower part of the state, rainfall over the weekend hit 14 inches in Bennettsville and Galivants Ferry and more than 15 inches in Marion, said state meteorologist John Quagliariello.
This rainfall triggered flash floods and hundreds of rescue operations in Horry and other counties nearby along the North Carolina border.
"Those rivers in North Carolina that have received heavy rainfall are coming our way, as our own rivers, which are gathering water now from streams and tributaries," McMaster said. "They have not crested yet, they haven't begun yet."
And in the tiny town of Nichols that was decimated by flooding from Hurricane Matthew two years ago, residents are fleeing ahead of flood water they expect to come.
More:Nichols residents flee floodwaters again. Many had just recovered from 2016 devastation
Lexington fatality brings S.C. deaths to six from Florence
5:40 p.m. | Lexington
One person died in an early morning crash Sunday in Lexington County where weather was a contributing factor, according to the state Department of Public Safety.
A pickup truck was traveling east on Pond Branch Road near Gilbert when it drove into standing water on the road, lost control and struck a tree, according to SCDPS. The driver died at the scene.
More:Florence kills six in South Carolina; death toll now at 17
125 roads closed in South Carolina
5 p.m. | Greenville
Flooding proved to be the most dangerous aspect Florence brought to South Carolina. On Sunday, 125 state roads were closed due to flooding or downed trees, according to the state Department of Transportation.
Across the state, nearly 2,000 SCDOT employees worked to re-open roads or keep roads from flooding.
Interstate 95 in Dillon County remained closed Sunday afternoon as floodwaters washed over the interstate lanes.
Utilities work to restore power in S.C.
3:10 p.m. | Greenville
Duke Energy restored power to more than 11,000 customers in South Carolina by mid-afternoon Sunday. It's total outages dropped from 37,000 earlier in the day to just over 25,000 by 3 p.m.
In North Carolina, Duke Energy outages increased from 414,000 earlier Sunday to 416,000 by 3 p.m. as Florence continued to rain heavily as it moved west across the state.
More than 18,500 customers of South Carolina Electric Cooperatives lost power by Sunday morning. Most of those were in Chesterfield, Dillon and Horry counties.
By 3 p.m. that number shrank to 10,000.
Duke Energy said more than 1 million customers in the Carolinas have experienced power outages as a result of the storm.
Greenville, Anderson return to normal operations
2:23 p.m. | Greenville
Emergency personnel in Greenville County are staying close to their phones but have headed home after determining conditions across the area are back to normal.
Jessica Stumpf, landfall coordinator for Greenville County Emergency Management, said her division director, Damon Hubber, declared the situation "OpCon 5" (normal) and sent everyone home at about 11 a.m. Personnel remains on call, she said, should conditions change.
"I've been texting back and forth with county public works all afternoon," Stumpf said. "So we're still monitoring and staying in contact with our partners."
Greenville County spokesman Bob Mihalic said all downed trees and branches have been cleared from county roadways.
"No major damage," he said.
Trees blocked nine roads in unincorporated areas of the county Sunday morning: River Ridge Road, Rainbow Court, Arlene Drive, Pink Dill Road, Pine Creek Court, Knollview Drive, East Old Mill Road, Landrum Creek Road and Pennwood Lane.
"All things considered, so far we haven't had too much," Mihalic said.
Anderson County's emergency officials don't expect worsening conditions and have returned to normal operations.
"We may see a bit of an increase in rainfall but we don't think it will be significant," said Lt. David Baker, who heads the Anderson County Sheriff's Office Emergency Management Division. "We are confident we can resume county normal operations."
Emergency workers will continue to be on call for power outages and road blockages or other problems.
At least 60 trees and around 10 utility poles have fallen in the county so far in the aftermath of Hurricane Florence. The storm, which is now a tropical depression, is slowly passing over the county and the Upstate.
Another S.C. death blamed on Florence
2 p.m. | Kershaw
A fifth South Carolina death related to Florence has been reported.
One person died Sunday morning in Kershaw County in a vehicle crash, the South Carolina Department of Public Safety said.
A driver was headed west on Interstate 20 near mile marker 106 when the pick-up truck left the roadway and struck an overpass support beam, SCDPS said. The driver died at the scene.
That brings the total death toll from Florence to 16.
National Guard races to sandbag ahead of floods
12:30 p.m. | Conway
While sheets of rain fell around them, South Carolina National Guardsmen and DOT workers raced Sunday to fill giant sandbags with dirt and place them on a 1.5-mile route on the U.S. 501 bypass bridge over the Waccamaw River near Conway to prevent flooding of a key route in and out of the Grand Strand.
The site is one of two that DOT and other agencies are targeting to prevent highway flooding of rivers from Florence, now a tropical depression moving slowly through the state.
The other site is along U.S. 378 near Lake City.
Col. Timothy Wood with the South Carolina National Guard, said hundreds of guardsmen are working on the bridge project, in addition to DOT and inmates with the state Department of Corrections, who are filling the large sandbags.
The goal, he said, is "to keep traffic going across this."
As he spoke, flash-flood warnings were issued for the area.
"The priority of efforts is to get dirt and sandbags into this area to protect this bridge," he said.
Dozens of dump trucks filled with dirt or sand drove to the bridge Sunday. The massive project began Saturday and is set to finish Monday.
South Carolina rivers may begin cresting Monday evening into Tuesday, officials have said.
Some of the dirt is being used to fill giant sand bags, which are then being placed against guard rails.
Other sand is being placed on the bridge. Traffic on the bridge is restricted to one lane going out of Conway so the flood barrier can be built.
First Sgt. Darrell Hudson with the 124th Engineering Company from Saluda, said the use of the barriers has worked elsewhere.
"We sent a team to Vermont with (Hurricane) Sandy when they had a real bad flood up there," he said.
Teams have also used the barriers after Hurricane Hugo and in Columbia from flooding in 2015, he said.
Do the barriers work, Hudson was asked.
“Absolutely.”
Four deaths in South Carolina from Florence
11 a.m. | Greenville
Four people have died in South Carolina from Hurricane Florence and its remnants as the storm rolled across the state Saturday night and Sunday.
A man died in Georgetown County early Sunday when a truck drove through floodwaters and overturned into a ditch. Two people were able to get out of the truck to safety but the man was trapped inside and drowned, according to a report from GAB News.
A man and woman died in Horry County due to carbon monoxide poisoning, the state Department of Public Safety reported.
A woman in Union County died when her vehicle struck a tree in the road, according to SCDPS.
The four South Carolina deaths brings the total death toll from Florence to 13.
Update at 12:54 p.m. - The death toll in North Carolina has risen to 11. That brings the total deaths related to Florence to 15.
More:Florence kills four in South Carolina; death toll now at 15
Traffic lights out, trees down across Greenville
10:35 a.m. | Greenville
Power is out and traffic lights are not working on Augusta Street in Greenville near McDonald's as of 10:30 a.m.
A tree fell across Ashton Avenue and Gilfilling Road in Greenville. There is also a large tree down across power lines and blocking the road at Woodland Way and Boxwood Lane near Cleveland Park, which will block the road for some time.
So how are the roads in Greenville, Pickens, Anderson?
10 a.m. | Greenville
A tree that fell across Fants Grove Road in Anderson closed the road Sunday morning, but otherwise roads remained passable in the Upstate.
Reporters roving the Upstate reported large puddles on some major thoroughfares like Pelham Road and Woodruff Road in Greenville.
The state Highway Patrol reported a handful of wrecks Sunday morning.
I-95 closed from Florence flooding
9:43 a.m. | Dillon
The South Carolina Department of Transportation closed a section of Interstate 95 in Dillon County due to continued flooding that overtopped all lanes of the interstate Sunday morning.
I-95 is closed from (SC 38) to Exit 190 (SC 34). The continued impacts of Florence have caused flooding throughout Dillon county.
There was no passable detour Sunday morning, SCDOT said. They urged motorists to avoid the area.
Florence brings rain, downed trees in Upstate
9:30 a.m. | Greenville
As of 8:30 Jessica Stumpf with Greenville County emergency management said no roads were closed in the county.
“With the exception of a few trees down, it’s quiet,” she said.
The Upstate remained under a flash flood warning Sunday morning, according to the National Weather Service station at GSP airport, with steady rain starting overnight.
Wind gusts are also an issue, with sustained winds of 20 to 30 mph and gusts up to 50 mph expected in much of the Upstate as well as western North Carolina, the weather service said.
Residents of the North Main area reported they had lost power between 3 a.m. and 4 a.m. Duke Energy crews were on site for several hours to address a transformer that blew out near Townes Street, residents reported.
Throughout the county, outages numbered between 1,000 and 20,000, according to Duke Energy.
South Carolina Electric Co-op spokesman Lou Green said that high winds sweeping through the state are causing widespread damage to the power grid, from parts of the high-voltage transmission system that supplies electric substations to lines that lead to neighborhoods and homes.
Florence:Power out for some in Greenville, Spartanburg counties as Florence begins to impact area
Photos:Hurricane Florence unleashes havoc on the Carolinas
Warnings lifted, flood risk remains
5 a.m. | Greenville
Tropical storm warnings have been discontinued after Florence was downgraded to a depression early Sunday, but it will still be a rainy, windy day in the Upstate.
Flash flooding and major river flooding continues to be a concern across a significant portion of the Carolinas as the storm continues on its path west at about 8 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center. The Upstate can expect to see one to two inches of additional rainfall throughout the day Sunday and sustained winds around 25 mph, Lauren Carroll, National Weather Service meteorologist, said.
The winds could be powerful enough to knock down a few trees and cause some power outages. "'So far it looks like we've dodged most of the worst," Carroll said.
Other areas of the region are still being battered by heavy rains. Southeast North Carolina will see more rainfall, with a potential of 30 to 40 inches of rain before Florence moves out.
Power outages are affecting thousands, with more than 59,000 outages reported accross South Carolina as of 4 a.m. Sunday, according to the South Carolina Emergency Management Division.
From the state Department of Transportation: I-95 has been closed in both directions near mile marker 1-87 due to flooding. A detour is being installed between Exit 198 (SC 34) and Exit 181 (SC 38). Motorists are urged to drive with extreme caution and obey the speed limits.
Florence moves closer to Upstate
2 a.m. | Greenville
Tropical Storm Florence continues to make its way west, dumping heavy rains and causing risks of flash floods.
Florence is expected to weaken to a tropical depression soon, but flash flooding remains a major concern over much of the Carolinas early Sunday morning, according to the National Hurricane Center.
Wilmington and other areas in Eastern North Carolina continue to get the worst of Florence.
Catastrophic flooding is still a major concern
12:01 a.m. | Greenville
Rain and wind are expected to begin in Upstate South Carolina on Sunday. Areas along the coast are still getting pounded by the outer bands of Florence.
Some areas have received more than 30 inches of rain.