It's 'surreal': USC community grapples with flooding, fallen trees after Hurricane Helene

At 8 a.m. Friday morning, Veta Mapes was awoken by a thunderous impact.

“And then all of a sudden I hear, like, a big crash, big, big crash," she said. “And I woke up, it was one of those, like, either lightning just hit the house or something happened.”

The fourth-year engineering student discovered the true source of the sound seconds later. 

“I look out my window and I see that a tree fell on my car,” Mapes said.

Mapes’ situation is one of many cases of damages dealt by Hurricane Helene. People across South Carolina are dealing with fallen trees, debris, power outages, flooding and more from the storm.  

The Category 4 hurricane swept across the Southeast early Friday morning, delivering high winds and torrential rain. Gusts of more than 60 miles per hour were recorded at Columbia Metropolitan Airport on Friday. 

Helene made landfall near Perry, Florida, at 11:10 p.m. Friday night. The storm reached the Columbia area by early Friday morning, and moved off to the Northwest by the afternoon. 

As of Monday evening, the death toll stands at 133. In South Carolina, the death toll is at least 29, according to AP News.

Flooding

A flash flood warning was issued for Columbia on Thursday due to heavy rainfall from Helene’s outer bands. 

Cary Mock, a professor of climatology and hurricane researcher in USC’s geography department, explained how outer bands can be dangerous. 

“The outer bands actually usually can get more rain, because what happens is that the humid moisture interacts with a relatively colder air next to it, and that kind of generates that thunderstorm type of atmosphere,” he said. “Well, around in the eye, don't get me wrong, you can rain a lot, but it may not be as heavy.”

The university issued a warning via email for students to avoid low-lying areas of Columbia on Thursday at 2:20 p.m.. In the same email, USC moved classes after 5 p.m. on Thursday and on Friday to virtual.

The intersection of Whaley and Main Streets, as well as Blossom and Huger Streets, flooded. The Blossom Street bridge was temporarily closed to traffic. 

Cars were submerged in flood waters behind the Mills apartment complex on Thursday and again on Monday afternoon.

Matthew Kliber, second-year information science student and resident of the Mills, said his car was totaled by water in Thursday’s flooding. 

“I'm not used to flooding," he said. "Everywhere I live, I'm not used to flooding. And apparently, Columbia floods easily. I had no idea, and if I would have known, I would have moved it. My car was one of, like, two cars that flooded, so I probably should have known, but no, I didn't, and now it's totaled.”

One Mills resident was seen braving the flood waters to save his pick-up. 

“So basically, this dude, he had his red truck, and it was pretty much flooded, it was almost  to the lights, and he went through the water, got in the back of it, climbed in it somehow, and then got his truck and pulled it and drove it out of the water," Kambree Clinton, a resident of the Mills, said. "I don't know what happened to him after that, but he got it out of the water."

South Carolina Emergency Management recommends that people avoid entering flood waters.

Arun Roopani, a first-year economics student, reported that his dorm room in Maxcy College experienced minor flooding on Thursday. 

“So when I woke up, I was going to class, I think, and I went to the bathroom, and there's, like, a lot of water in there,” he said. “And I thought it was just my roommate who took a shower, but then I stepped out and then there was a puddle in front of my closet, and then a puddle in front of my sink as well.” 

Roopani spent Thursday night in a friend’s dorm room due to the flooding. The water was removed from the room by maintenance staff at around 4:00 p.m. on Thursday, he said. 

The Congaree River reached major flood levels just short of those experienced in the 2015 flood. This situation prompted a voluntary evacuation for some Cayce residents. 

Cayce police conducted over 100 door-to-door knocks to alert residents in the Riverland Park neighborhood of the voluntary evacuations.

Addie Bennett, a third-year meteorology student and resident of the student apartment complex Cayce Cove, described the flooding as “surreal.” Bennett left Cayce Cove to avoid potential flooding. 

“I was here in 2015 when we had the previous 100 year flood, which that was also really surreal, it's really scary just seeing your local community be flooded, be so far underwater,” she said. “It's just, like, we live, like, a short, short distance from the river, and we can just see it rising day after day. And it's just it's very scary, very surreal to see it happen.”

Most residents of Cayce Cove are staying in the building through the flooding, Bennett said.

Fallen trees

Multiple trees fell in the vicinity of USC’s campus, including one on the horseshoe. A large oak tree fell towards Desaussure College, a student residence hall, but did not hit the building. 

One student interviewed at the scene was shocked and saddened by the tree’s fall.

“Right now, I'm sort of just, like, shocked it did fall down, because, like, these are old, old trees, and obviously the fact that it fell down is causing damages,” Andrew Juhn, a fourth year biology student, said.  "But the more important thing is, we're not going to have that tree anymore. And that tree’s probably been here since the campus opened."

Fallen trees closed roads near campus Friday morning, according to an article by The State. One blocked Pendleton Street at its intersection with Pickens Street. Another tree fell across Greene Street onto a parked car. 

At 1642 Enoree, a student apartment complex, a tree fell onto multiple cars. Mapes’ car was one of them. 

“This tree was massive, and it was so loud because it hit my car,” Mapes said. “It bounced off of it and also hit, I think, like four other cars all at once.”

She remains unsure if the car can be repaired, but her insurance company will provide a rental car for her to drive, she said. 

Fallen trees were a contributor to power outages in Richland County, according to a press release from the county’s public information office. More than 90,000 customers around the county were without power as of Friday morning.

The impact around the state

Upstate South Carolina was hit hard by Helene, fallen trees and power outages were widespread. In Anderson, Aiken, Cherokee, Greenville, Greenwood, Pickens, Oconee and Spartanburg counties, over 75% of customers lost power on Friday. In Oconee, the number was at 100% on Friday morning. 

USC Upstate canceled its classes through Wednesday, and USC Aiken canceled through Tuesday.

USC Beaufort returned to normal operations Monday.

USC Upstate in Spartanburg suffered significant damage. Fiona Kessler, a fourth-year psychology student at USC Upstate, described the situation there.

“About every street had a tree down. You know, power lines obviously are affected,” she said. “And obviously with that, it caused chaos in Spartanburg. So, you know, we had no food, electricity at my own apartment, the water went out for some reason, so it was just a highly stressful situation. So we went over to my parents house, me, my sister and my roommate. And even there, it was bad.”

Finding gas for cars was a difficult process, Kessler said. 

“Saturday, at like 3 a.m. because there was no gas anywhere, because all the power was out," she said. "There was, like, maybe three places in  the Spartanburg city area that had gas. So I went out, got gas for our generators and stuff. There was probably a line, you know, I don't know how many cars, probably, like, 50 cars deep at that time.”

Kessler decided to travel to Columbia to get supplies. 

"I couldn't find anything locally you have to wait in the line outside the building, and it wrapped around the building to get into any sort of like hardware store," she said. "So I had the idea of, like, I have gas in my car. Why not drive down to Columbia or somewhere close to it, see if I could get something?” 

What's next

On Sunday, USC Provost, Donna Arnett, announced that classes on Monday and Tuesday would have optional attendance. Assignments due on those days were postponed, according to the email. 

"USC follows the lead of Richland County when making the decision on whether or not to close campus," University Spokesperson Collyn Taylor said. 

Some students feel the response from the university was inadequate. Bennett said she disagreed with the timing of USC's optional attendance announcement.

"It's kind of ridiculous, because that could put students at risk, at danger," she said. "They don't want to miss classes because they don't want to get poor grades for missing class, so they're staying in a flood prone area so they don't miss class up until Sunday night, which is when the flood waters were really starting to rise. And it's just, I think it's very irresponsible that the university is being so lax with canceling classes and not prioritizing student safety."

Mapes felt the university did not handle Thursday's flash flooding adequately. 

"I don't think this was handled well at all," she said. "I went to class that day. I was soaked throughout my classes, and it's a risk, because, you know, even with this flash flooding, people can trip and fall on water, and they can like, you know, damage, like themselves. I know property was damaged. People's laptops were damaged."

The Congaree River reached its crest Monday afternoon at around 30 feet. Water levels are now declining in the river.

Power has yet to be restored to all customers in Richland or Lexington County. Lexington has 13,273 customers without power, and Richland has 12,820 customers without power, according to the Dominion Energy outage map.

Columbia's water supply is not at risk of being shut off at this time, Columbia Water said in a tweet. 

Students can find information from the university about closures and cancellations on USC's weather related announcements and updates site. For information about the state-wide response to Helene and to report outages, students can go to South Carolina Emergency Management Division's site.

Mapes said Helene continues to affect her, days after it left the state. 

"People don't have power, don't have internet," she said.  "I didn't even end up having e-learning day because all my professors got out of power. I think a lot of people are grieving. I know in my hometown, so many people have died."