Spinal Decompression Therapy in Daniel Island, SC

Rainfall breaks a 130-year-old record in downtown Charleston as the Lowcountry braces for more wet weather. A popular sushi chain is suing a competitor over an allegedly similar name and menu. Charleston's water utility demolished five homes on James Island to make way for future infrastructure needs.

We're going to catch you up on these and other top stories from The Post and Courier for Monday, Oct. 5.

Rainfall breaks 130-year-old record in downtown Charleston. And it’s still coming.

The National Weather Service recorded 3.64 inches of rain on Oct. 4, breaking the previous daily rainfall record of 2.51 inches set Oct. 4, 1893. Some areas received more than 5 or 6 inches over a 12-hour period, prompting a region-wide flash flood alert around 8 p.m. that warned of dangerous and life-threatening conditions. The flood warning lifted after 1 a.m. on Oct. 5, and all main roads reopened ahead of the morning traffic rush, though some smaller side streets remained closed.

Popular Charleston sushi chain sues new restaurant over its allegedly similar name

Locals Sushi & Sports Pub, which has three locations in Charleston County, filed a lawsuit against Moncks Corner restaurant Rollin Local on Sept. 14, alleging unfair and deceptive trade practices. The suit claims Rollin Local copied menu items, hired former employees with knowledge of Locals' recipes, and used a confusingly similar name to trade on the established chain's goodwill. Locals Sushi & Sports Pub, in operation since 2009, sent a cease-and-desist letter in May, which Rollin Local refused. Trial is scheduled to begin April 12, 2027.

Why were those 5 James Island homes on Harborview Road torn down? The water utility did it.

Charleston Water System demolished five homes on Harbor View Circle this year because the utility determined it would be less expensive to tear them down than maintain them, citing issues like asbestos and mold. The homes were located on a small marsh island adjacent to the Plum Island sewage treatment plant, where CWS has been acquiring for decades in anticipation of future infrastructure expansion. While no immediate plans exist for the site, CWS spokesperson Michael Saia said eventually all homes on the island will need to be demolished.

A $10K strip of grass helps students outside of Charleston County get into CCSD schools — legally

A 12-foot-wide vacant parcel at Romney Street and Athens Court is listed for $10,000 with its primary selling point being "school qualifying purposes." An obscure 1962 South Carolina law allows students to attend school in any district if they own property there with a tax-assessed value of $300 or more, and families have been purchasing cheap parcels to meet this requirement. For the 2026-27 school year, 35 students residing outside the district used this property law to attend Charleston County schools, generating $431,000 in revenue for the district.

Bay Street Biergarten to open 2nd location in West Ashley

Bay Street Biergarten, a German- and Southern-influenced restaurant operating since 2013, will open a second location in West Ashley in spring 2027. The new location will be larger than the flagship downtown restaurant at 549 East Bay St. and will feature expanded outdoor space and more televisions.

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCIV) — With heavy rain and possible flooding expected Saturday, Charleston leaders are urging residents to stay off the roads, prepare their property and follow safety rules as high tide peaks.

Emergency management officials said the combination of expected rainfall and the morning high tide is likely to cause coastal flooding on the peninsula and could create dangerous conditions if people are not prepared. The city is encouraging people to stay home this weekend if they can.

“The more you can stay at home, off the roads and off the streets this weekend, the better it’s going to be for for everyone,” said Jon Stewart, the city’s emergency management director.

Mayor William Cogswell said conditions could vary widely from neighborhood to neighborhood and could change quickly.

“It might not be bad, but it could also be worse than we anticipated," Cogswell said. "You just never know, how these different fronts are going to work together. And your area may be different than an area half a mile away."

City preparations have been underway all week, including crews clearing drains and gutters, barricades placed across the peninsula, mobile pump tanks brought in and lake levels lowered to allow for excess water.

Officials said flooding is possible beyond the peninsula.

“We can’t rule out any flooding over, on James Island, over in West Ashley, too," Stewart said. "So we’re monitoring throughout the city. But right now, it’s going to be a lot of our traditional areas where we see a lot of, normal flooding."

Residents were reminded to clean up debris on their property and to never drive through flooded roads. Stewart urged people to stay inside if possible and to call for help if needed.

“Please don’t go out," Stewart said. "If you don’t need to. But if in those situations, call 911. It’s only a few inches of water can knock you off your feet. So even if you think it is safe to cross a road, drive your vehicle through it."

Cogswell also asked residents to avoid putting first responders at risk.

“We just hope people will, take that under consideration and stay home and not put our, first responders and unnecessary danger,” he said.

City leaders also highlighted a new ordinance aimed at discouraging disruptive behavior during flooding events, including going around barricades or speeding through flooded streets.

“We want to make sure people are safe. We want to make sure properties, remain safe," Cogswell said. "So we have ordinances that, you can get in a lot of trouble for going around a barricade or for speeding through flooded waters. So we’re asking residents and visitors alike to be respectful."

For residents who need a safer place to park, five downtown parking garages will be free starting at 6 p.m. tonight through Sunday afternoon: the Aquarium, Visitors Center, Queen Street, East Bay/Prioleau and Charleston Tech garages. Residents will need to scan a QR code when exiting the garage to receive free parking.

CHARLESTON COUNTY, S.C. (WCSC) — The City of Charleston is offering free parking access to residents due to flooding as Hurricane Isaias is expected to produce heavy rainfall this upcoming weekend.

Hazardous conditions are expected to develop Friday night and continue through Saturday and Sunday. Three to six inches of rain and high tides are expected to produce flash flooding and coastal flooding in parts of the county.

Tornado advisories are also a possibility Saturday morning along the coast, according to Charleston County spokesperson Chloe Field. County officials also encourage residents to avoid all unnecessary travel Saturday based on the forecast and potential for worse conditions.

The county will open the following parking garages Friday at 6 p.m. for residents in the low-lying area to park their cars for free during the upcoming storm:

Residents are asked to remove their vehicles by 4 p.m. Sunday to avoid being charged for additional time. To use the storm parking, they should pull a ticket at the entrance and keep it. To exit, they insert the ticket and scan the City’s storm parking QR code to leave free of charge. Anyone who loses a ticket or does not have the code can press the help button on the exit machine, say their name and address and mention that they were looking for storm parking.

The City has closed all Charleston County Public Library branches Saturday and will reopen during normal hours on Tuesday. Book drops will remain closed until that time. Digital library resources can be accessed here.

Click here to find the QR code, garage information, road closures and the latest storm updates. To report flooding or to ask a non-emergency question, residents are asked to email the Citizens Services Desk at citizenservices@charleston-sc.gov.

DANIEL ISLAND, S.C. (WRDW/WAGT) - More than a thousand dead fish were found floating in Smythe Lake on Daniel Island and the South Carolina Department of Environmental Services says a low dissolved oxygen event is to blame.

SCDES investigators responded to the fish kill and determined there was not enough oxygen dissolved in the water for fish to breathe normally.

Fish kills can occur for a variety of reasons. Low dissolved oxygen is one of the most common causes and can result from warm water temperatures, changes in weather, excessive aquatic vegetation or algae or the decomposition of organic material, according to SCDES. Other potential causes include disease, changes in water chemistry or the introduction of pollutants.

Steven Goodwin, a Daniel Island resident, said he and his neighbors noticed gas bubbling up from the lake about a week before the fish began dying.

“By Saturday, we saw fish surface breathing,” Goodwin said. “Just one or two, which is a little odd. And then by Sunday, when we came out at 7:30 in the morning, the entire population of fish were up at the surface. Because I’ve got video of it. It’s quite amazing to see how many fish there were in the lake and every single one of them coming up to try to breathe.”

By Monday, Goodwin said, roughly 1,000 fish were dead.

“I’ve lived here 16 years,” Goodwin said. “People on the island lived here 25, 26 years. We’ve never seen anything of this magnitude. We’ll see 4 or 5, you know, 10 or 12 occasionally in the far corner where obviously they didn’t get enough oxygen. This is a mass event.”

Goodwin said he called the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources immediately.

“Shocked,” Goodwin said. “That’s why we called DNR immediately because I’ve lived here 16 years and that doesn’t happen.”

Goodwin said SDNR told him Smythe Lake is a retention pond and that responsibility falls to the Property Owners Association.

He said he then contacted the POA, which told him it would collect the dead fish once the event was over.

Steve Meyer, a SCDNR regional freshwater fisheries biologist, said a low dissolved oxygen event means there wasn’t enough oxygen in the water for fish to survive, and it typically affects larger fish worse.

Meyer said heavy weekend rain likely caused the lake to mix, combining an oxygen-rich top layer with a low-oxygen layer below.

“During periods of warm weather, like in the summer and late fall, the ponds stratify into, like a warm, oxygen-rich layer at the top, and then a cooler oxygen poor layer down below,” Meyer said. “That oxygen poor lower layer is filled with decomposing organic material and sediment and just muck. And so, when you get a heavy, cool rain, that can turn up the system and those sediments on the bottom, causing there to be mixing throughout the lake, and that oxygenated top layer mixes with the low oxygen lower layer. That decomposing organic material is then spread throughout the whole system and you get an oxygen crash throughout the whole system.”

Meyer said the event was most likely caused by the weather and that fish kills of this kind aren’t uncommon this time of year in Lowcountry ponds.

“It’s unfortunate, but it’s not super uncommon that we see these types of fish kills this time of year, in the Lowcountry, in ponds,” Meyer said.

Meyer said Smythe Lake is a 22-acre pond, and a kill of this size is not uncommon for a pond that size.

“It’s pretty common for fish kills like this to happen, and when they happen in a pond this size, 22 acres, I mean, you kind of magnify out the numbers to where, yeah, thousands could occur,” Meyer said.

Meyer said aquatic herbicides applied to duckweed or other plants can sometimes cause fish kills, though he said he is not aware of any herbicide application at Smythe Lake.

“That is a possible reason if they did apply aquatic herbicides to duckweed or whatever plants,” Meyer said. “As far as I know, they didn’t. But that is a cause of fish kill sometimes.”

Meyer said the dead fish do not pose a risk to reptiles or amphibians in the lake.

“If it’s a low oxygen kill, there’s no risk to those amphibians, those reptiles, like turtles and alligators, because they breathe atmospheric oxygen,” Meyer said. “And then the birds and alligators and turtles and stuff are all happily feasting on dead fish, so they’re okay. Those fish aren’t toxic or anything; they suffocated; they aren’t poisoned.”

Meyer said aerators or fountains are sometimes used in ponds to keep water mixed and prevent stratification.

“Sprinklers, like aerators and oxygenators, are sometimes implemented in ponds like these, and they can be used to keep the water mixed so that it doesn’t stratify,” Meyer said. “It can help keep the water well oxygenated, either subsurface aerators, like pumping oxygen into the lake, or those sprinklers, those fountains that sort of spray water up in the air, and that water mixes back down in with oxygen in it.”

Meyer said avoiding nutrient overload and overstocking fish are also ways to prevent low oxygen fish kills, and that a pond the size of Smythe Lake would need more than one fountain to make a difference.

“You want to avoid overloading ponds with nutrients, either from runoff or fertilization, and you want to avoid overstocking them with too many fish,” Meyer said. “Those are the main ways you avoid these types of low oxygen fish kills. I think it’s a 22-acre pond. So I don’t think it would be like, oh, one fountain out there would fix it, like you’d have to do a little more than that.”

Meyer said any decisions are ultimately up to the POA.

“It’s totally up to that property owners association, but my recommendations would be to avoid nutrient loading from runoff and fertilization and to consider aeration of the pond through either subsurface aerators or surface fountains,” Meyer said.

The POA is now collecting the dead fish from the lake.

Goodwin said he wants to know what the lake’s weed management program involves, since removing vegetation like alligator weed and duck weed without proper disposal can deplete oxygen in the water.

“We want to know what the weed management program is,” Goodwin said. “The lake gets a lot of alligator weed and duckweed. They kill that. But if you don’t remove it, it depletes oxygen. And so it could be a combination of factors. We just want to get to the bottom of that.”

Goodwin said he also wants to discuss a long-term aeration strategy and restocking the lake with fish.

“We’d also like to talk about longer-term plans. What is the aeration strategy?” Goodwin said. “Not just when something like this happens, but on an ongoing basis. They need these giant carp to eat the grass. They’ve got to restock this now.”

Goodwin said the lake supports a wider ecosystem, including alligators, osprey, eagles, kites and hawks.

“There’s always people fishing along the banks here and over on the far side,” Goodwin said. “We’ve got a healthy alligator population. There’s at least two in there right now. And ospreys, wild eagles, kites, hawks, they all live around here. Many fish that feed off of all the grasses that we’re trying to keep under control. I think we want to talk about a strategy where everything blossoms. And fish.”

Goodwin said the POA sent residents an email saying it plans to talk with its landscaping company.

“POA put out an email saying that they’re going to talk to the landscape company in Clemson,” Goodwin said. “And I hope that conversation includes some aeration strategies. A lot of people coming up to me just while we’re sitting here this morning saying, I can’t believe there’s no fountain in the lake. I don’t know what the aeration strategy has been, but a lake of this size, if we want it to be healthy, we have to talk about aeration.”

Goodwin said residents are not looking to assign blame.

“Shock,” Goodwin said. “You can still see it. People walking around. They look at the lake and they’re just shaking their head. You know, this is 2026. How is this happening? We know better. I don’t think anyone’s looking to blame anybody here. I think we just all assume this is part of our nature, everyday existence on Daniel Island. We love living here. We love the birds. We love the fish. Let’s work together to make sure that everything thrives.”

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CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCBD) – The Charleston area should expect periods of heavy rain, coastal flooding, isolated tornadoes, and dangerous beach and marine conditions as Hurricane Isaias moves inland along the Gulf Coast this weekend.

While Isaias is forecast to make landfall along the Gulf Coast as a Category 2 hurricane Friday night, its impacts will extend well east of the storm’s center. Forecasters say deep tropical moisture associated with the system will spread across southeast Georgia and South Carolina through the weekend.

The National Weather Service in Charleston expects widespread rainfall to develop Friday night and continue into Saturday, with the heaviest rain falling across coastal communities.

Forecasters are calling for 3 to 5 inches of rain across the Charleston tri-county area, with 1 to 3 inches expected elsewhere. The greatest flooding threat will occur where multiple rounds of heavy rain move onshore.

Coastal flooding is also possible during each high tide cycle through Sunday morning. The highest risk is expected around Saturday morning’s high tide, when water levels could approach major flood stage in some areas.

“Any rainfall that occurs during high tide will exacerbate flooding issues,” the National Weather Service said.

Breezy conditions are expected Friday and Saturday. A Lake Wind Advisory is in effect for Lake Moultrie, where wind gusts are forecast to reach 25 to 35 mph.

Along the coast, Gale Warnings remain in effect for nearshore waters. Seas are expected to build through Friday, reaching 5 to 8 feet late Friday night. A high risk of rip currents is also expected at area beaches.

Forecasters say the risk for isolated tornadoes and waterspouts will increase late Friday near the coast and continue into Saturday as rain bands move inland. Any tornadoes that develop could form quickly and produce localized wind damage.

The severe weather threat has already prompted multiple event cancellations and schedule changes across the Lowcountry. The City of Charleston has activated portions of its flood mitigation plan and is staging crews to respond to flooding and other storm-related issues.

City parking garages will be open free of charge Friday through Sunday for residents in flood-prone areas who need a safe place to park. Learn more here.

Residents are encouraged to secure loose outdoor items, monitor weather forecasts, avoid driving through flooded roadways, and have multiple ways to receive watches and warnings.

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