Yahoo News South Carolina Floods: Dam Collapse Averted
Officials in flood-stricken South Carolina have been scrambling to repair a breach in the Columbia canal that is threatening the main water supply for 375,000 people.
Crews are constructing a rock dam a few hundred feet north of the breach, located near the city's hydroelectric plant.
Officials hoped to have the makeshift dam completed by Wednesday, Columbia Utilities Director Joey Jaco said.
The National Guard was using helicopters to bring in sandbags to help support the structure.
Some 1,000 residents living downstream from the dam were allowed to return to their homes after crews stabilised the breach.
"We've passed the critical stage we had earlier today," Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott said. "There is no danger of any dam break whatsoever."
The canal's normally calm waters looked like a whitewater rapids course after days of record rainfall across the state.
Improved weather has meant some relief, but for low-lying parts of state like the coastal city of Columbia, flood waters have continued to rise.
On Tuesday, Governor Nikki Haley said: "We are still in the mode that the next 36 to 48 hours will be volatile. Don't let the sunshine fool you."
More than 2ft (60cm) of rain has fallen since Friday in parts of the state, which avoided a hit from Hurricane Joaquin but experienced historic rainfall and flooding due to a combination of weather mostly unrelated to that storm.
President Barack Obama has signed a disaster declaration, ordering federal aid to help recovery efforts.
Seventeen people have been confirmed dead so far, including nine who drowned and six who were killed in weather-related car crashes.
On Wednesday, divers found the bodies of two men who went missing after their pickup truck entered flood water in Lower Richland County.
Officials said the men were out-of-state contractors who were assessing damaged railroad tracks. Three people inside the vehicle managed to get out safely.
The rainstorm has also been blamed for the deaths of two people in North Carolina.
