Friday, October 9, 2015

October 8, 2015 The Columbia Canal

"I have known rivers
I've known rivers ancient as the world
and older than the flow of blood in human veins"

   Langston Hughes "The Negroe Speaks of Rivers"

Now where I have so often walked between the Columbia Canal and the Congaree, the canal has broken and flowed over its banks in two places. The banks of the canal where the bodies of the Leetmen workers are burried are exposed and bare. The canal flows into the water treatment plant and is the source of drinking water for half of Richland County. Workmen have tried to shore up the banks unsuccessfully so far and are making efforts to force some of the Congaree flood into the water treatment plant.

Those  fortunate ones on higher ground who have not been evacuated have been forced to stay home from work and school are boiling their water and and having neighborhood cookouts. The children think it is fall break and are playing with the friends.  There is a communal spirit of survival. From all over the state and far away, clean water is being shipped in.

It is not over. The flood waters are moving quickly down to the Low Country. Georgetown is bracing for the flow of the Pee Dee  and Black Rivers into the Waccamaw. Wynyah Bay will be flooded.

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