Rivers crest, I-95 opens as South Carolina turns to recovery

Workers reopened the entire stretch of Interstate 95 southbound Monday, making it the first time in eight days that traffic on the major highway link from Florida to the Northeast didn't take a two-hour detour.

Kuenzli, 68, was directing traffic Friday when a food bank volunteer, 72-year-old Charles Kauffman, became irritated that Kuenzli was letting truck traffic move and stopping other cars.

Reserve tanks had been refilled and the city hopes to get all 375,000 of its customers off a boil water advisory soon.

The South Carolina State Fair in Columbia was on schedule to start Wednesday in Columbia, and Lott said his deputies could handle traffic and security for the University of South Carolina's football game scheduled for Saturday.

The southbound lanes were reopened Monday morning, ending a 168-mile detour through Columbia for people trying to drive the 75-mile stretch between Interstate 20 and Interstate 26.

[...] as officials announced every rain-swollen river in the state had finally reached their crests and were falling, the governor promised to send teams of insurance adjustors, mental health professionals and unemployment specialists to every hard-hit community so those people wouldn't have to drive out of town to get help.