Flash Flood — Lee, South Carolina

2020-09-17 · near Bishopville, Lee, South Carolina

Event narrative

Roads were flooded and impassable in the city of Bishopville, including S Heyward St, S Calhoun St, and along Main St. 2 to 4 inches of water entered a duplex on S. Heyward St. Times estimated.

Wider weather episode

Hurricane Sally made landfall near Gulf Shores, AL, as a category 2 hurricane, in the early morning of Wednesday, September 16, 2020, and then weakened and turned to the NE, tracking across the Central Savannah River Area of Georgia, and across Central SC, as a post-tropical area of low pressure, on Thursday, September 17. Moisture, instability and low level wind shear, associated with the low, provided tornadoes, heavy rain, and flooding. 48-hour rainfall totals of 2 to 6 inches fell across a large portion of the Midlands of SC, with higher rainfall amounts of 6 to almost 9 inches observed across portions of the southern and eastern Midlands from lower Orangeburg Co NE across S Calhoun Co, Sumter Co, Clarendon Co and S Lee Co SC. A total of 9 confirmed tornadoes occurred in Central SC during the morning and early afternoon of Sept. 17.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (34.2136, -80.2705)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 914347. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.