While rain has stopped falling in South Carolina, the deadly storm continues to bring devastation, with numerous dams breached and damage expected to top $1 billion. Numerous dams have been breached, bridges collapsed and hundreds of roads were inundated with floodwaters, causing emergency evacuations.
President Obama has signed a disaster declaration for federal aid to help with recovery efforts, and more than 1,300 National Guard members have been deployed in the state.
The storm is blamed for at least 13 deaths.
More than 500 roads in the state were severely damaged by the storm.
About 40,000 people in the state still do not have drinking water, and tens of thousands remain without power.
“South Carolina has gone through a storm of historic proportions,” Gov. Nikki Haley said. “Just because the rain stops, does not mean that we are out of the woods.”
Officials went door-to-door Monday, checking on residents in flood-ravaged areas such as Columbia, and hundreds of people were evacuated to emergency shelters.
The storm damage occurred despite the much-feared Hurricane Joaquin missing the East Coast.
By Monday, the heaviest rains had moved into the mid-Atlantic states. Along the Jersey Shore, some beaches devastated by Superstorm Sandy three years ago lost most of their sand to the wind, rain and high surf.
South Carolina authorities mostly switched Monday from search and rescue into “assessment and recovery mode,” but Haley warned citizens to remain careful as a “wave” of water swelled downstream and dams had to be opened to prevent catastrophic failures above low-lying neighborhoods near the capital.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.