September 11, 2017

Incredible New Video Shows Irma Flooding Downtown Charleston

Wow.

Charleston’s historic downtown area flooded Monday, as now-Tropical Storm Irma continued churning northward from Florida. The Post and Courier said the storm had generated a 9.9-foot tide, the third highest on record for the city, prompting authorities to issue a flash flood emergency. Video posted to Twitter shows pounding rain and wind, and the ocean overcrashing a promenade that separates the city from the sea:

https://twitter.com/Aaron_Maybin/status/907306771538214912

According to the Post and Courier:

The surge put White Point Garden under water and sent water coursing through downtown Charleston’s historic neighborhoods. Residents could be seen wading through hip-deep water; a john boat with four people aboard cruised down South Battery. Flooding was so severe that police in Charleston told people to avoid downtown until floodwaters recede.

At least four deaths were reported in Florida after the storm landed on Sunday, according to the New York Times; 27 have been killed across the Caribbean. Even as Charleston was lashed by outer bands of rain, Irma’s center was moving north-northwest toward southern parts of Georgia on its way to Alabama.

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

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Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

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