(Columbia) August 31, 2004 - All eyes are on Hurricane Frances, which is making its way towards the US coast, but Frances comes on the heels of Tropical Storm Gaston. Many South Carolinians are still cleaning up after Gaston dropped nearly a foot of rain over some parts of the Palmetto state.

So far about 3,100 insurance claims have been filed in South Carolina. Most of those claims are for $2,000. They total about $6.3 million in damages. 

Tropical Storm Gaston moved ashore between Charleston and Georgetown between 8:00 and 9:00 Sunday morning, dumping heavy rain and knocking out power to as many as 172,000 customers. Schools in two counties and a high school in a third were closed because of power outages.

Governor Mark Sanford at noon on Sunday declared a state of emergency for the areas hit by the storm, the first step in making the state eligible for federal funds. He visited the coast Monday morning to talk to local officials about damages, "Relatively light brushes as far as storms go. If the real thing comes, you're talking about catastrophic damage."

Still, Sanford warned residents to stay prepared and alert as more storms are expected this hurricane season, "The catastrophic damage that you see with a major hurricane and so the thing that you worry about, after four or five of these, people begin to say, well, this isn't that bad, a category four, a category five storm would be very, very bad, it's important we not grow complacent."

Early reports indicated Gaston had done as much damage in South Carolina as Hurricane Floyd in 1999, which was about $53 million. Sanford says the floodwater in some areas has receded and the damage may not be as bad as Floyd.

Sanford says a final damage estimate will not be available until county officials have time to do assessments.

The SC Insurance News Service reports approximately 2600 insurance claims have been received so far as a result of Gaston. The average claim amount is approximately $2000. It is expected the numbers will continue to increase as more claims are reported. This brings the total estimated insured property damage to approximately $5.2 million as of 4:00pm.

Most of the insurance claims are being reported in the Mt. Pleasant, Isle of Palms and North Charleston areas and involve trees down, siding damaged, shingles off rooftops and flooded vehicles. The insurance industry is expecting a larger impact from Tropical Storm Gaston than was experienced by Hurricane Charley two weeks ago.

Tropical Storm Gaston brought at least eight inches of rain leaving areas knee-deep in water and cars stranded. The National Weather Service says nearly ten inches of rain fell in the Kingstree area in Williamsburg County, and some parts of the county got as many as 14 inches. Turbeville in Clarendon County had seven inches of rain.

Daisy Nesmith lives in one of four houses evacuated in Williamsburg County, "The water was coming inside of the house when I looked out the door - knee deep. I had to walk to the neighbor's house to use their phone, cause I couldn't use mine, because the water was in the line."

Dr. Kenneth Gardner is the school superintendent in Williamsburg County. News 10 stopped by the district building to assess the damage with him. Computers were soaked, papers drying out and copying machines were still holding water, "It was 18", but because we've been down here, we were kind of prepared for that kind of water."

The building is in a flood plain, but the Sunday storm delivered an extra punch, "Usually a little bit of water, a little bit on the floor, but not this bad."

There is some good news. The staff is moving out in about a month.

The flooding took Sgt. Willie Bupkin, of Kingstree, by surprise, "I've never seen anything like it since Hugo. Outside the actual trees and destruction of the homes, I would put it on a scale worse than Hugo, as far as the flooding.

Bupkin say front yards were turned into ponds and streets were closed down, "It looked like a small stream crossing the roads, roads here in the city."

Streets in downtown Charleston also looked more like ponds, causing many business owners to take precautions against the high waters.

But, a stack of sandbags couldn't stop waves from seeping into Jack Callahan's business, "When it rains hard enough at high tide this is going to happen, and we got pumps and vacuums to come clean it up."

Charleston resident John Labard says the winds also caused problems, "I heard this loud crash, and I came walking out of the door and come to find out the tree is half across the street."

And, the rain kept coming. Bupkin says it forced dozens of people in Kingstree to leave their homes and go to an emergency shelter, "I had to evacuate a young lady from her residence. The kitchen area was flooded." Later Sunday night all the people in the Kingstree shelter had gone home to check on the damage left from the storm.

The South Carolina Department of Transportation opened its toll-free call center Sunday afternoon. Call 1-888-877-9151 for information on road conditions and general safety information.

Reporting by Catherine Reynolds
Updated 3:47pm by BrettWitt with AP