Historic Floods Hit South Carolina
POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening. It is 6:00 Eastern, 3:00 p.m. Pacific. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Poppy Harlow joining you from New York.</s>ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.</s>HARLOW: We begin with breaking news. Severe weather in the Carolinas, sudden rush of high water that is not only causing tremendous damage, but it is also taking lives. The hardest hit area right now were triangle between Charleston, Columbia and Georgetown, South Carolina. Two separate weather storms, one of them a hurricane crashed together dumping two feet of rain on a part of the state called the Low Country. The impact of the disaster reaches far outside of South Carolina. You are looking at live pictures right now. What you see is in part parts of I-95. There is literally nothing moving in one direction. A 70-plus mile stretch is closed down. Parts of I-95 are deep under water. It is not safe. And the governor of South Carolina, Nikki Haley, issuing a press conference just a short time ago. Her message to the people of South Carolina -- very, very straightforward -- stay home.</s>GOV. NIKKI HALEY (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: Where you see this deep water it's got bacteria in it. So, stay inside and don't get in there. We've seen areas of the interstate that are right now clear, but there will be a patch where it goes and gets real deep. You're going to have to turn around. It's not worth doing it. We are in the process of closing all of the interstates around the Columbia area. That is changing literally as we go. It is not good to get outside. You will see. We are going to have another meeting and conference call at 5:00. I will be encouraging county offices to close tomorrow, which automatically we're going to suggest schools close. And the main reason for that is this is not going to clear up until at least Tuesday or Wednesday.</s>HARLOW: It will not clear up until Tuesday or Wednesday. Look at those images from Charleston, South Carolina, low-lying Charleston. It is hard to tell where the road ends and the floods and the flood rivers begin. Forecasters say heaviest rain has moved to the northwest, but that Charleston could still several more inches of rain today and tonight.</s>ANGELA WILLIAMS, ESCAPED FLOOD WATERS: We have lost everything. What I got on my body is what we have, pretty much everybody down that hill there has lost everything this morning, vehicles, clothes, our everything. But the best thing is that we still have our lives. We still have our lives.</s>HARLOW: Yes, absolutely. Boris Sanchez is live for us in Georgetown. You look at that and you look at her saying, at least we have our lives because there have been deaths already because of this flooding.</s>BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Poppy. We know of at least five weather-related traffic fatalities between the Carolinas over the last several days. As a matter of fact, we just confirmed moments ago with the Office of Emergency Management that about 15 minutes from here, there is a vehicle submerged on the highway and we believe there may be people inside. So, obviously, the danger still high here in this area especially here in Georgetown, an area that's surrounded by bodies of water. We have seen the water come rising from an inlet over here. It is also difficult to drive in this area because so many roads are scattered with debris and they have damage to them. We actually spoke with a veterinarian who was trying to get into Georgetown earlier to an animal hospital just down a street from us, and she was trying to rescue an animal that had been left inside a hospital. She talked to us about the trouble she had trying to get in.</s>SHERI DUNCAN, HARBORWALK VETERINARY HOSPITAL: I think God was looking out for us because it actually did not get up high enough to damage much. So -- but it is very stressful that your whole business and livelihood. Thank God I didn't have animals here.</s>SANCHEZ: Now, fortunately, she got help from a gentleman that runs a water extraction business here. You can see some of the businesses here, you see the high water mark is. They've all been flooded. He was here trying to get water out of some of these businesses and he rushed to the animal hospital when she gave him a call to try to help. He was lamenting how he couldn't get to the animals faster. Here is what he said.</s>SANCHEZ: How much water have you pumped out?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right now, we are at 1,000 gallons and we're not even touched the top of it.</s>SANCHEZ: You can hear the animals?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, yes, we can hear the cats in the back. I don't want to walk in the water because we don't know if the power is still on or anything. So, we're just pumping.</s>SANCHEZ: That was a few hours ago. The good news is they were able to pump out 11,000 gallons of water from that anima hospital and save a cat named Tink (ph). She's doing OK. So, things are relatively calm right now. And again, you can see behind me, the water has receded, but because this is kind of geographically a bucket, water is just going to keep flooding in as it keeps raining today, Poppy.</s>HARLOW: Wow. Thank you very much, Boris Sanchez. Appreciate the reporting. I do want to go to Tom Sater at the CNN severe weather center, just for what people are still supposed to expect. Because we just heard the governor of South Carolina, Nikki Haley, say, look, this is going to go on until Tuesday or Wednesday.</s>TOM SATER, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, I think the rain, Poppy, is going to continue at least for a good 24 hours. The problems, the rivers are going to continue to rise for several more days. Now, my big fear was and the last time that we had a little chat was that some of the water treatment plants have been submerged and, of course, with that, a breach of fresh water. The mayor of Columbia just a little while ago issued a boil water advisory. I believe that is the first of many communities that have been completely submerged. The rain totals from the last three days more than just a one day rainfall record, a two-day rainfall record, the greatest three-day rainfall record, the greatest rain for any day in the month of October or any month. This is a one in 1000 year event. Purple is easily 10 to 20 inches, which is inundating most of South Carolina and it's now getting into areas of North Carolina. This was Joaquin. Remember when it was a category 4 over Bermuda last Wednesday, the forecast wanted to carry that into the Carolinas after this rainfall. All of the moisture that is spinning in South Carolina is actually a field of moisture that is coming off the rear quadrant of our hurricane. This now is a 36-hour radar. Georgetown, which is south of Myrtle Beach, completely submerged. They have been pumping water back in the ocean, but high tide is every six hours, 2:00 was the last one. It comes in again at 8:00 on shore. It will try to push it back on shore. Flash flood warnings, numerous rescues and evacuations continue to take place and that will continue into the outer banks as another six to ten inches is possible as now our moisture field continues to flow across the northern counties. This is going to go on for a couple of days at least, Poppy, with the rivers continuing to rise.</s>HARLOW: No relief in site. It has been raining there for two weeks now. All right. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. I also want to give you an update on the story we have been tracking very closely within the last hour. The U.S. Coast Guard confirms a large debris field has been located near the last known location of that cargo ship you see there on your screen. The ship's name El Faro, it went missing on Thursday when it sailed right into Hurricane Joaquin. During a routine trip from Florida to Puerto Rico, the coast guard sent out a tweet a short time saying that a 225 mile area of the ocean littered with Styrofoam, wood and cargo and other items has been located. A Coast Guard spokesman says the debris was found about 88 nautical miles northeast of Samana Cay in the Bahamas. Earlier, divers did recover a life ring bearing the name of that vessel just about 70 miles northeast of the ship's last known location. Rochelle Hamm's husband Frank is one of those 33 crew members. She wants to know how on earth was the ship allowed to sail into the path of the storm. Other family members say they are holding on to hope. They hope their loved ones will be found.</s>MICHAEL DENTON, FATHER ON LOST CARGO SHIP: You don't say anything. You don't stop hoping. Just keep it up.</s>REPORTER: Are you hopeful?</s>DENTON: Yes, yes, yes. Man, you got to be. It's very stressful, you know? So, just hoping everything will be better tomorrow.</s>JAMES HATCH, SON ON LOST CARGO SHIP: Praying. Yes.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: God is in the midst and we know. They will come home safe. They will be safe.</s>HARLOW: One Coast Guard cutter will reach that search area tonight. It will be joined by a second search and rescue vessels tomorrow. We'll keep you posted as we learn more on that. Straight ahead, though, inside a classroom of that Oregon mass shooting this week. What the youngest survivor is telling her family and how playing dead very well saved her life. Then, air strikes at a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Afghanistan. Doctors Without Borders saying this may be a war crime, talking about the U.S. military's role. We will talk about all of that next.