Storm-lashed South Carolina reassesses global warming's role

[Judi Lynn]

Jeffrey Collins, Associated Press
dated 3:42 pm CST, Saturday, February 16, 2019



Kevin Tovornik exits his travel camper located in the back yard of his home damaged by flooding from Hurricane Florence near the Crabtree Swamp Friday, Feb. 1, 2019, in Conway, S.C. Tovornik lost his air conditioner and duct work in the 2016 flood. In 2018, he saved his furniture, but still ended up losing the house.


COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — When he took the job 15 years ago, Horry County Emergency Manager Randy Webster figured his biggest disasters would be wind and surge rolling over his county's beaches, South Carolina's top tourist destination.

Instead, his worries have shifted inland, where rivers overflowing their banks have caused two massive floods in three years.

"We're getting into this sort of unknown territory," Webster said. "We typically in emergency management have some point of reference to work with. Two floods like this — it's unheard of."

Scientists say the Earth's warming climate means more heavy rainfall over short periods of time, and that translates to larger, more ferocious storms on the scale of 2017's Hurricane Harvey in Texas or 2018's Hurricane Florence in the Carolinas. Florence dumped six months' worth of rain on the Carolinas in the course of just a few days.

More:
https://www.chron.com/news/science/article/Climate-change-means-more-floods-great-and-13621954.php