Bluffton emerges from nearly 8 inches of rain early Friday

Bluffton residents could have added a new item to their to-do lists on Friday: build an ark.

According to the National Weather Service in Charleston, 7.9 inches of rain fell on Bluffton during the morning and afternoon. That's nearly three inches more than the total monthly average for the area for September.

The accumulation was calculated by a rain gauge on Red Cedar Street, meteorologist Vern Beaver said. Monthly data aren't calculated for Beaufort County by the weather service, but the average total rainfall for September in Savannah, the closest weather station, is 5.08 inches, Beaver said.

"There was more rain in a day than you would expect in a whole month," Beaver said.

Flooding was reported in parts of the Bluffton Park subdivision, in Pinecrest, in Rose Hill Plantation, on H.E. McCracken Circle, near Sheridan Park and along Buck Island and Simmonsville roads and at various other places around town.

Bluffton resident Jackie Brown said the inside of her parents' Buck Island Road home was flooded with nearly two inches of water.

"The yard has been flooded before, but nothing like this," Brown said. "Before, we saw it happen after days of rain -- not in just two hours of it."

Brown said the Bluffton Police Department, the Bluffton Township Fire District and Town Council member Fred Hamilton helped her family pump the water out of her parents' house. They were still working on it Friday evening, she said.

Though their neighbors' yards were flooded, Brown said her parents' home was the only one in the neighborhood to have interior damage.

"Everything drains here," she said.

Larry and Tina Toomer, owners of the Bluffton Oyster Co., had a different problem. Their 25-foot speedboat sank.

"Once it took on a certain amount of water, it just turned over," Larry Toomer said Friday afternoon.

"It's one of those things. ... We waited too long to check on it."

Though the boat was submerged, Toomer said he was able to get it afloat -- with only minimal damage -- in an hour.

The heavy rain in Bluffton also affected some students.

Flooding on the Bluffton schools campus Friday morning kept students out of mobile classrooms, Beaufort County School District spokeswoman Carol McMillan said. The sidewalks leading to portable classrooms at Bluffton Elementary School were submerged, so students had to stay in the main building until the drains were cleared, McMillan said.

At Bluffton High School, water leaked into the auditorium, halls and stairwells, McMillan said. Some parts of the building lost electricity.

At the new Red Cedar Elementary School, storm drains were blocked, causing water to rise over the curb near the bus loop. Water leaked into the building from the parking area. The leaks were fixed by Friday afternoon, McMillan said.

An official with the Bluffton Township Fire District said the department responded to a number of flood-related calls.

A spokeswoman for the Beaufort County Sheriff's Office said deputies responded to several cars that had stalled on flooded roads.