Weather system deluges US East Coast as hurricane threat eases

The US National Weather Service designated nearly the entire southern coastal state of South Carolina as "high risk for excessive rainfall Saturday and Saturday night." Portions of far north-eastern Georgia, south-western North Carolina and far eastern Tennessee also were in the flood watch zone.

The governors of several states, including South Carolina, Virginia and New Jersey, declared states of emergency in preparation for the extreme weather.

Hurricane Joaquin, which has moved to the west of Bermuda over open ocean, is partially to blame for the rainfall, the weather service said. But the storm is expected to turn toward the north-northeast on Sunday and not ram the east coast of the United States.

Joaquin has strengthened again to a category 4 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale with maximum sustained winds speeds of nearly 250 kilometres per hour and higher gusts, the National Hurricane Centre said. It is moving at a speed of about 30 kilometres per hour.

Juaquin damaged houses and uprooted trees in the Bahamas on Friday. It also cut off communication to a lightly populated island in the archipelago.

Hurricane force winds extend outward up to 110 kilometres from the eye, and tropical storm force winds extend outward up to 335 kilometres, the hurricane centre said. This will send high waves into the coast and mix with the additional precipitation already falling in the region.

The streets of some South Carolina towns already are under water. The governor of the state, Nikki Haley, on Friday told residents to prepare for the severe weather.

"We are about to go through something that we have never gone through before," she said. "We are going to see rainfall at historic levels."