One-two punch: Hurricane Joaquin, second storm deluge East Coast

October 2015 – SOUTH CAROLINA – Charleston, South Carolina (CNN)—A deluge roared over the East Coast on Saturday, causing blackouts and evacuations and threatening all-time rainfall records in South Carolina and the southern Appalachians. Three people died on Friday and Saturday in traffic incidents in South Carolina, and a car passenger died in North Carolina on Thursday when a tree fell on Interstate 95, officials said. The deaths were blamed on the weather. The potentially historic precipitation will last all 48 hours of the weekend, due to a 1-2 punch from Hurricane Joaquin over the open Atlantic and a second weather system: Joaquin drenches the Northeast and a separate low-pressure rainmaker dumps on the Southeast.

As if one wasn’t bad enough. Parts of the South Carolina coast braced for likely flooding with more than 15 inches. In tourist destination Myrtle Beach, water began to swallow a substation, causing power outages in the area, according to CNN affiliate WBTW. “I’m a good citizen and I’m going to obey,” Shirley Jones, of Charleston, said of official advisories to stay home and out of the knee-deep water. “I’m going to hole up in my apartment and clean out my dresser.” As of 7 a.m., Charleston already broke its daily record rainfall of 3.46 inches. As South Carolina residents hunkered down, up to 500 residents were evacuated in coastal Brunswick County, North Carolina, that state’s governor said.

Flood and flash flood watches are posted from Georgia to Delaware through at least Sunday. “The magnitude of rainfall coupled with already-wet soil will bring about the threat of potential significant flooding impacting life and property,” CNN meteorologist Michael Guy said. “There is also and increased threat of landslides and debris flows across the mountains and foothills of the Carolinas. “Life-threatening rip currents, high surf, and coastal flooding, mainly at high tides, will stretch nearly the entire eastern U.S. coast,” he added, noting wind gusts that could reach 30 mph and could topple trees. A foot of rain could befall the Southern Appalachians. The Northeast could see two inches. And up to four inches could strike the waterfront between Georgia and New Jersey. The low pressure over the Southeast is funneling a deep atmosphere river of tropical moisture into the Carolinas, creating the torrential rainfall, CNN meteorologist Sean Morris said. –CNN