More heavy rainfall swamps South Carolina

Another day of heavy rain drenched an already inundated South Carolina as rescue teams went door-to-door to check on people in swamped neighbourhoods and authorities surveyed a statewide road system torn apart by historic flooding.

At least nine weather- related deaths in two states were blamed on the vast rainstorm, the latest coming when a sedan drove around a barricade and stalled in rushing waters.

The driver drowned, but a female passenger managed to climb on top of it and was rescued by a firefighter who waded into the water.

“She came out the window. How she got on top of the car and stayed there like she did with that water, there’s a good Lord,” said Kershaw county coroner David West.

Heavy rain kept falling around the Carolinas from the storm that began in the southeast last week, part of an unprecedented system that dumped over a foot of rain across South Carolina and drenched several other states.

Sunday was the wettest day in the history of South Carolina’s capital city Columbia, according to the National Weather Service.

South Carolina flood: Swamped streets, thousands without running water; death toll at 12 pic.twitter.com/QE3GWgOJsh

— The Associated Press (@AP) October 5, 2015

The rainfall total at the Columbia Metropolitan Airport was 6.87in, the most rain that has ever fallen there in one day.

One downtown station recorded 17in in as many hours on Sunday.

South Carolina governor Nikki Haley said the deluge is seen once in 1,000 years.