South Carolina is taking steps to improve the safety of its regulated dams following the failure of more than 30 structures during October’s massive floods. The action is aimed at addressing lingering concerns about the effectiveness of the state’s safety program.
The result of a 1,000-year storm event that dumped as much as two feet of rain on inland and coastal areas in just over three days, the floods caused failures in 36 dams, of which 31 are regulated by the South Carolina Dept. of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC). Only one federally regulated dam—an earthen structure located on a U.S. Army installation in Columbia, the state capital—was breached.