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A sheriff’s office van carrying two mental health patients in Horry County, South Carolina, was headed for a mental health center on Tuesday night when the vehicle came about a half-mile from the Little Pee Dee River.
Parts of the river had risen to major flood status earlier in the day. As the van traveled on Highway 76, it was met by rising floodwaters, the Horry County Sheriff’s Office said.
Two deputies transporting the patients jumped into action. But despite efforts to yank the doors open, authorities said, the floodwaters were too powerful for the deputies and the patients drowned inside.
The deputies took refuge on top of the van, and high-water rescue teams dispatched to the scene saved them.
A Marion County coroner confirmed the two deaths and identified them as Wendy Winston, 45, and Nicolette Green, 43.
The bodies were not immediately recovered late Tuesday because of the floodwaters.
Horry County officials earlier identified them as “detainees,” but the Marion County coroner clarified they were mental health patients. They were being transported from their hospitals near the coast to a behavioral center further inland in Florence.
It’s unclear why the deputies made the treacherous trek through an area with hazardous flooding and what exactly hindered the patients from getting freed from the vehicle.
“Tonight’s incident is a tragedy,” Horry County Sheriff Phillip Thompson said in a statement. “Just like you, we have questions we want answered. We are fully cooperating with the State Law Enforcement Division to support their investigation of this event.”
The women’s deaths bring the total to at least 35 killed since Florence made landfall Friday as a Category 1 storm.
Most of the deaths have occurred in North Carolina, where entire communities have been virtually cut off by floodwaters and are grappling with rivers cresting at record levels.
The Cape Fear River at Fayetteville rose to more than 61 feet early Wednesday, surpassing the level it reached during Hurricane Matthew in 2016. Residents along the banks had been evacuated as a precaution.
“This is unbelievable compared to Matthew,” resident Kurt Reed told NBC affiliate WRAL. “It’s been a creeping death.”
Elsewhere, the Little River along the Harnett-Cumberland County line was swallowing homes. In the Manchester area, the river was expected to reach nearly 40 feet by Wednesday morning — more than double the flood stage.
President Donald Trump is expected to visit the Carolinas on Wednesday.