South Carolina, 6 months after floods: 'Rough road ahead'

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — In a flood, nature can steal everything: lives and homes, delicate Christmas ornaments, a favorite flannel shirt, a special fishing hole.

The historic rains and floods that battered South Carolina in October claimed 19 lives, destroyed more than $1 billion dollars in homes and property, and left thousands struggling to recoup.

In some areas hit hard, major roads have reopened, schoolchildren are back in class and clean water is restored to residents.

Baddourah once ran a restaurant in the area and said he's worried about property values plummeting and entire sectors losing residents.

Columbia police Patrolman Michael Thompson keeps his eyes open for wildlife as well as thieves as he patrols homes stripped to wooden skeletons after the floods.

Volunteering to work on his days off, Thompson says repeat visits help him recognize returning residents as well as contractors licensed for home repairs.

Over the days of rain, residential ponds and lakes that dot suburban neighborhoods around Columbia "filled up like a cup," says Erich Miarka, the director of the Gills Creek Watershed Association.

Miarka, who has helped organize volunteers cleaning the battered Gills Creek watershed, surveys what remains of an earthen dam that once held back Cary Lake in the community of Arcadia Lakes.

Miarka says the cost of fixing the dam alone might carry a $1 million price tag, and homeowners are hoping for state or federal assistance with the bill.

For Roosevelt Durham, floodwaters have calmed enough to let him get back to a favorite fishing spot along Gills Creek.