Rain, Floods, Tornado Add to Hurricane Woe

Rain, floods and a tornado heaped more misery on Hugo-wrecked South Carolina on Monday, interrupting rebuilding efforts from the hurricane that pummeled the coast 12 days ago.

Relief officials deluged with clothing urged donors to send building supplies, food and cash.

“I feel sorry for the people. It’s terrible. It adds insult to injury,” National Weather Service meteorologist Dick Shenot said after 2.5 inches of rain fell in a 24-hour period on Charleston, the town hardest hit by the hurricane’s 135-m.p.h. winds.

A tornado in Lebanon, about 25 miles north of Charleston, left two injured. About 100 people in Anderson County, 200 miles north, had to be evacuated because of flooding.

The Broad and Blair rivers in Gaffney, the Congaree River in St. Matthews, the Waccamaw River in Conway and the Saluda River in Chappells spilled over their banks Monday.

The Tiger River rose 12 feet above flood stage, damaging a major telephone cable and knocking out long-distance service from Spartanburg to Asheville, N.C., said Ron Laughlin, spokesman for AT&T.; He had no estimate of the number of people affected.

In North Carolina, also deluged by rain Monday and still recovering from Hugo, Monroe rescuers were looking for three people missing when a creek flooded and swept away their car. A fourth passenger was rescued after clinging to a downed tree for more than an hour.

Aid from across the nation continued to pour into South Carolina. The response has been so overwhelming, though, that some officials do not know what to do with everything.

“We have clothing backed up on us, including in boxcars that have come from the West Coast,” Maj. Ken Bush of the Salvation Army said. “People, generally speaking, only want a number of clothes . . . and we’ve reached that certain amount. We’re backlogged.”

10 Rooms Full of Clothes

In the fishing village of McClellanville, population 500, about 10 classrooms in the local school are filled “from floor to ceiling with used clothing.”

“Used clothing has almost choked us to death,” said Billy Newsom of the American Red Cross.

Bush and Newsom said donations of non-perishable food items are still desperately needed. As cleanup efforts progress, hardware items will be in demand to help repair homes and businesses, Bush said.

Marilyn Quayle, Vice President Dan Quayle’s wife, visited the hardest-hit areas of South Carolina and worked briefly at a relief center Monday in Moncks Corner. She was expected to work in Charleston before leaving the state today.

Hurricane Hugo slammed into South Carolina Sept. 21 with 135-m.p.h. winds, leaving at least 18 dead, 50,000 homeless and 270,000 jobless.