photograph and see this catastrophic destruction for themselves. you can see just how encompassing it is. this. intersection just turned into a lake there behind me. when we first arrived we could still see the handles on the doors of some of those businesses. now the water level s almost to the top. we re seeing some of those buildings starting to lift a little bit from the water. some collapses out there. just a testament to the power of nature. this water is all from gills creek which rose seven feet in just three hours shattering previous records. as i said, officials just overwhelmed by the shear amount of calls for trapped motorists, swift water rescues, for downed power lines and downed trees. a lot of concerns out there right now. meanwhile people encouraged to stay indoors but they re coming out anyway to see what s going on. emergency shelters operating right now for those who have been forced out of their homes. no sign of things letting up any
video here. this is highway 17 near georgetown. somehow they were able to get down the left side of the road. you can see one van that they passed there. this is the highway. this is highway 17 along the coast in south carolina. wait until you see the water levels here on this suv that got trapped. obviously these people either barely escaped or a fire department had to come and rescue these people. this is the story at ft. jackson, just east of columbia, south carolina. this is a dam collapse. looks like rock, kind of an earthen dam, we ll call it. that collapsed. that s in like a downtown area. there s no water left in the lake. this is downtown columbia, south carolina. in columbia you had six inches of rain in a short period of time last night and it is still raining now. plus, we had numerous dam collapses. that water s all piling up in the city of columbia. this is charleston, north carolina. this image was sent out by the city of north charleston. this is the scene taking place
have made it. they say they are very thankful for the emergency response and they are praying for other people who may find themselves stranded in the storm. this water behind me creating this lake at this intersection, this is from gills lake. it shattered all previous records. it happened in three hours. seeing a lot of downed trees and power outages in this area. it is a historic flood and storm just as forecasters predicted. back to you. thank you to nbc s sarah dallof in columbia, south carolina. let s go to charleston, south carolina where we find the weather channel s jim cantore. jim, you ve spoken with state officials this morning. how are they comparing? well, right now they re trying to get additional resource. tom was he had a pretty interesting tone to his voice. he s very concerned. with the south carolina emergency management about the need for additional resources especially in the rescue area.