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COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) —
Hundreds were rescued from fast-moving floodwaters Sunday in South Carolina as days of driving rain hit a dangerous crescendo that buckled buildings and roads, closed a major East Coast interstate route and threatened the drinking water supply for the capital city.
The powerful rainstorm dumped more than a foot of rain overnight on Columbia, swamping hundreds of businesses and homes. Emergency workers waded into waist-deep water to help people trapped in cars, dozens of boats fanned out to rescue others in flooded neighborhoods and some were plucked from rooftops by helicopters. More door-to-door search operations are planned Monday.
With so much water, officials said it could take weeks or even months to assess every road and bridge that's been closed around the state. Several interstates around Columbia were closed, and so was a 75-mile stretch of Interstate 95 that is a key route connecting Miami to Washington, D.C. and New York.
"This is different than a hurricane because it is water, it is slow moving and it is sitting. We can't just move the water out," Gov. Nikki Haley said at a news conference.
She also warned it wasn't over yet as rain kept falling into the night around the Carolinas.
One death was reported in the area on Sunday, bringing weather-related deaths to seven since the storm began days earlier. The system drenching South Carolina was part of an unusual combination of weather conditions involving a slow-crawling low pressure system meteorologists called unusually deep for this time of year.
People were told to stay off roads and remain indoors until floodwaters recede, and an overnight curfew was issued for Columbia and across two surrounding counties. The capital city told all 375,000 of its water customers to boil water before drinking because of water line breaks and the threat of rising water to a treatment plant. Emergency officials said later Sunday that many in Columbia were without potable water because of water main breaks and customers may have to go without drinking water for three or four days. Meanwhile, nearly 30,000 customers were without power at one point.
Local officials counted several hundred water rescues by mid-morning before Columbia Fire Chief Aubry Jenkins said in an interview that there were too many rescues to keep count.
"We're just trying to get to everyone," Jenkins said. "But there are places we just haven't gotten to."
Columbia Police Chief William Holbrook said door-to-door search and rescue operations by police, firefighters and other emergency responders would continue Monday. Anyone still needing to get to safety was urged to call 911 and military vehicles were being lined up to take people to safety.
"The operation will also include overall welfare checks," he said of Monday's "concentrated" operation, adding crews will mark the front doors of homes with a bright fluorescent orange 'X' once they have been searched.
One of the hardest hit areas in Columbia was near Gills Creek, where a weather station recorded more than 18 inches of rain — or more than a third of the city's average yearly rainfall — nearly all of it in 24 hours. The creek was 10 feet above flood stage, spilling floodwaters that almost reached the stoplights at a four-lane intersection.
State forecasters said another 2-6 inches could fall around the state, and it could be Tuesday before skies are sunny.
Vladimir Gorrin said he led his 57-year-old aunt through floodwaters about 7 feet deep surrounding her apartment near Gills Creek. He said his aunt, Wanda Laboy, waited several hours after calling 911, so family came to help.
"She's very distressed right now," said Gorrin, 38. "She lost everything."
His aunt, who didn't appear to be injured, was heading with her nephew to his house in an unflooded area of Columbia, he said.
"I'm trying to find my way back home, and every road that we've taken is blocked or flooded," he said in a phone interview.
Emergency shelters were being opened around the state for displaced residents, and President Barack Obama declared a state of emergency in South Carolina.
Along the coast, rainfall had exceeded two feet since Friday in some areas around Charleston, though conditions had improved enough that residents and business owners were allowed downtown on a limited basis.
Charleston Mayor Joe Riley said he's never seen flooding as bad in his 40 years as mayor.
"This was a record storm," he said. "You know the amount of rainfall that we have experienced is unprecedented. I feel very fortunate that we were able to get through this as well as we have."
At least seven weather-related deaths have been reported since rains began spreading over the Eastern Seaboard, which appeared to dodge the full brunt of Hurricane Joaquin as it veered out to sea.
The latest death reported was a woman killed when her SUV was swept into flood waters in Columbia. Richland County Coroner Gary Watts said the woman's body was found Sunday afternoon, about 12 hours after she disappeared in flood waters near downtown Columbia.
Three people died in separate weather-related traffic accidents in South Carolina on Friday and Saturday, the Highway Patrol said. In North Carolina, a driver died on a rain-slickened road on Saturday, according to that state's Highway Patrol. On Thursday, a woman drowned in her car in Spartanburg, South Carolina, while a passenger in a vehicle in North Carolina was killed when a tree fell on a highway.
In Florence, about 80 miles east of Columbia, Mary Gainey was told Sunday about an evacuation order for her neighborhood along a rising creek. "I've been rushing around, making sure I have everything I need," said the 65-year-old Gainey.
She's going to stay at her daughter's house until the water recedes.
"This is the first time we've had to be evacuated," she said. "It's strange leaving everything behind."
Officials were imposing a 12-hour curfew across Richland and Lexington counties.
Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott called it a common-sense curfew. Anyone not facing an emergency situation needs to stay off the roads until 6 a.m. Monday. He says law enforcement officers "will stop you and make you go home or somewhere else." He stresses that "this is not a time for anybody to be a spectator."
Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin says anyone who doesn't take the flooding seriously risks not only their lives, but the lives of first responders. He says flooding levels are difficult enough to judge in the daytime.
Other cities across the Midlands have also issued curfews. Sumter has announced a curfew starting at 7 p.m. Sunday until 7 a.m. Monday.
Several schools and colleges, including the University of South Carolina, canceled classes Monday and some busineses planned to remained closed.
ROSEBURG, Ore. (AP) —
People in this southern Oregon timber town sought solace in church services following last week's deadly shooting rampage — including one congregation where the pastor's daughter survived because the gunman mistakenly believed she was dead.
More than 100 people gathered to hear pastor Randy Scroggins speak at New Beginnings Church of God. Among them was 18-year-old Lacey, who cried while sitting in the front row with her mother and another student who was spared.
Randy Scroggins said he's been asked whether he can forgive Christopher Sean Harper-Mercer, who killed nine when he opened fire Thursday at Umpqua Community College.
"Can I be honest? I don't know. That's the worst part of my job. I don't know" said Scroggins, his voice cracking with emotion. "I don't focus on the man. I focus on the evil that was in the man."
Harper-Mercer killed himself after a shootout with police.
At services across Roseburg on Sunday, pastors talked about the tragedy as the community tries to heal.
A couple hundred people crowded into Garden Valley Church, where pastor Craig Schlesinger said living the faith means countering the rampage "with acts of kindness.""
Schlesinger also spoke about trying to make sense of survivor reports that the gunman asked who was Christian and then shot them.
"As those brave men and women were willing to stand and take a bullet for their faith... so let us bravely stand this day and live our faith in Roseburg," he said, wiping away tears.
There have been conflicting accounts of Harper-Mercer's words inside the classroom, and what he may have meant by them. Some witness accounts have said that after killing people who said they were Christian he continued to execute others, doing so randomly.
Scroggins told those gathered at his church that his daughter survived because she was lying on the floor and partially covered by the body of a fellow student. The gunman thought his daughter was dead.
Scroggins said the community has "come together with strength and courage and compassion. As if to say, 'we will not be defined by violence.'"
Also sitting in the congregation alongside Lacey Scroggins was 18-year-old Mathew Downing, who also survived.
Scroggins' daughter Lacey had told him the gunman gave an envelope to Downing and told him to give it to police. Randy Scroggins said the envelope contained a flash drive.
A law enforcement official has previously told The Associated Press a "manifesto" from Harper-Mercer was recovered at the scene. The official wasn't authorized to speak publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Scroggins spoke with Downing's mother, Summer Smith, following the Sunday services. He told the AP the gunman told her son "'go to the back of the room and sit down, facing all of us, and you're gonna watch.'"
As the community comes to terms with its grief, pastors have been at the forefront.
Religious faith is an important part of many people's lives in this rural part of Oregon, called by some "the Bible Belt of Oregon." In Roseburg alone, there are dozens of churches, and Christian billboards and crosses dot area highways and roads.
When pastor Jon Nutter got a text message last Thursday about the shooting and realized how many had been killed or injured, he immediately formed a prayer circle at Starbucks where he was sitting.
He then rushed to open his church in Roseburg to anyone in need of counseling, and drove to the Douglas County Fairgrounds, where officials were reuniting students with family members.
As bus after bus rolled into the fairgrounds on Thursday carrying students, faculty and staff, Nutter and about two dozen other local pastors held uncontrollably crying students, formed prayer circles, listened to eyewitnesses recount the rampage that killed nine and watched tearful reunions with parents and spouses.
The pastors also comforted parents and spouses who waited for the last bus of students. Five hours after the shooting rampage, a dozen remaining family members were ushered into a room at the fairgrounds, said Nutter, who was in the room. Officials notified them there would be no more buses coming.
"They had been waiting for a long time, hoping, praying," said Nutter, pastor of Hucrest Community Church of God. "People were crying, yelling, some families were angry, others going into denial and shock."
ROSEBURG, Ore. (AP) —
An Army veteran tried to stop the gunman from entering a classroom during the deadly rampage at a community college here and was shot at least five times, according to the man's aunt.
After Chris Mintz fell to the floor, wounded, he looked up at the shooter, said it was his son's birthday and asked the gunman to stop, Wanda Mintz told The Associated Press on Friday.
"He's lucky to be alive, and we're grateful he's alive," she said of her 30-year-old nephew, a student at the college.
Mintz was recuperating at a hospital in Roseburg.
In an interview with ABC News, he said: "I just hope that everyone else is OK. I'm just worried about everyone else."
Speaking by phone from her home in Randelman, North Carolina, Wanda Mintz got a description of what happened from her nephew's girlfriend.
She said Chris Mintz went through seven hours of surgery and is expected to survive.
"Chris is a tough guy," she said.
She said Chris Mintz was in class at Umpqua Community College when he heard gunshots.
"He was in the military and knew what it was," she said.
Chris Mintz told other students to remain calm and went to the door as the shooter came across the hallway.
His aunt said the gunman shot her nephew three times at the door. After Chris Mintz fell, he told the armed man, "It's my son's birthday today. Don't do this.'"
The gunman then shot him at least twice more and proceeded into the classroom.
She said her nephew tried to crawl away but couldn't move because of his wounds.
He was hit in both legs, his stomach, the back and in the hand, but the bullets did not hit any of his vital organs, she said.
He has two rods in his legs, she said, and is going to be in a wheelchair for the foreseeable future.
"It's going to be a long, long recovery," said Wanda Mintz.
She said she spoke with her nephew briefly Friday morning. She said he told her he was in a lot of pain.
Chris Mintz was born and raised in Randelman, about an hour and a half west of Raleigh, North Carolina. His son, Tyrik, turned 6 on the day of the rampage, Wanda Mintz said.
Chris Mintz was in the Army, stationed at Fort Benning, Georgia, then moved about nine years ago to a base in the West. He never saw combat, his aunt said.
She said he's an athlete and was studying body building and nutrition.
Chris Mintz left the military a few years ago and was a part-time student at Umpqua, she said.
Mike Gwaltney, a swim coach at the YMCA where Mintz worked, said he wasn't surprised to hear how Mintz, a fellow veteran, reacted.
"It's something that Chris and many others are trained to do," he said. "He's a pretty tough cookie."
Gwaltney said he saw Mintz at the hospital as he was coming out of surgery.
"For the most part, he was in very good spirits," Gwaltney said.