together the rain continues to fall in most of the midlands this morning but we could be in relief before we ring in the new year. good morning. let's toss things over to meteorologist efren afante. hi, efren. >> good morning, mary. and happy new year's eve to all the midlands. starting off with a little bit of rain. half of the midlands now, northern half experiencing light to moderate to heavy rainfall. the heaviest concentration now moving through areas of

to newberry to the north. fairfield county and approaching winnsboro to the west of blythewood and ridge wood and light scattered showers into west irmo. starting off more mild than yesterday. 63 newberry. 64 winnsboro. sumter, 66. columbia, 67. we'll be experiencing light showers, but temperatures to stay in the upper 60s into the afternoon. better chance for light to moderate showers into the late afternoon and early evening. if you are heading out now, you'll want to give yourself a lot of interest time because -- extra time because the roads are wet. i-26 between piney grove and st. andrews road, traffic is very light right now. but the roads with wet, so give yourself extra time. only delay in lexington across augusta road from main street

sunset boulevard across i-20 right now is clear. from i-26 lake murray to the williams-brice stadium, 21 minutes. we'll look at your seven-day forecast coming up in a few minutes. mary. thank you, efren. sce&g officials are monitoring water levels at lake murray and lower saluda river after they released water from the river from the dam. during the october flooding sce&g opened up four. now just one is open. you may have noticed the flooding surrounding the metropolitan wastewater treatment plant in columbia. it was soaked during the flood, and now the water has nowhere to go. the facility's management says the water has affected operations and adjustments have

out of the area. >> our staff are able to park in a secondary area and we use city vehicles to traffic, carpool them in so that they can get to the plant and keep it operational. >> to stay up-to-date on the latest on the weather, you can sign up for text alerts at wltx.com. newberry county residents continue to see flooding issues. three we'll had to be evacuate -- people had to be evacuateed from their homes yesterday on wheeler street. foster says if you're in a low lying area or near a creek you need to be aware of the water levels and make a plan that allows you to leave quickly if you need to. if you're driving and cannot see the pavement under the water, be sewer to turn around. after the floods, saluda

decided they needed to help others. their county didn't have much damage like others in the midlands did. news 19's colby gallagher has the story of how one woman was helped by strangers who just wanted to make a difference. >> i was still there for people when i needed to be, there for my squad when i needed to be, but all that stuff was in the back of my mind, insurance, not living at home now. >> reporter: deputy kim mcgregor makes a living helping others. but she needed help during the floods. >> the entire first floor was damaged, done. i couldn't salvage anything. i had to rip up all the carpet up, everything. tore the walls out. >> reporter: flood insurance covered the structural damage, but she has to pay out of pocket for the contents she lost.

>> the goal was to get money to flood victims, 100%. so we didn't know exactly where when we started other than we wanted it to go to south carolina flood victims. >> reporter: maggie wills thought of the benefit that raised over $15,000. mount pleasant lutheran church was one of four dominations to help. >> i was excited to hear about the final number for a community this size, that's i think a tremendous response. >> reporter: the donations were split in $3,000 increments. the exact number mcgregor asked her parents for. >> everybody needs help. even if they don't ask for it, everybody needs help. >> reporter: colby gallagher, news 19. >> one of the churches involved was flooded, but they said they wanted every penny raised to go

needed it. speaking of the flooding, you have four more days to apply for individual assistance through fema. originally was on the 3rd, but that falls on a sunday, so they'll be accepting registrations through monday. president obama has declareed all midlands counties a federal disaster, which means the entire middle is eligible for individual assistance. if you've already registered you don't need to reply. we are on your side this morning with some boil water advisories you need to know about. first, there's an advisory issued for all addresses in the 400 through 600 blocks of old barnwell road. also all addresses on lynn drive, bel air drive and anyone in the savannah woods subdivision. boil your water lest a minute, one full minute, before you use it to cook or drink. there will be an advisory in place this saturday, the water

supposed to happen tuesday had to be postponed because of the weather. they will relocate the lines on saturday from 9:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., near lee park and mineral springs road. you won't have water during those hours, but once the water is back on you'll need to boil your water for at least one full minute again before you use it. the search continues in sumter as police there look for three suspects in connection with an attempted murder. they're looking for henry dingle, kevin smith, and william spann. four other men have been arrested in connection with this particular case. police responded to shots fired call on fraysure street shortly before 4:00 p.m. tuesday. detectives think the three men could be involved in other cases as well. all three are believed to be armed and dangerous. if you have information that could help, you're asked to call crimestoppers.

authorities say a husband and wife's fight over a chicken dinner landed them both in the hospital. it happened on ranch road near decker boulevard. deputies say the wife wanted to get chicken at church's and the couple got into an argument. that's when deputies say the husband punched the wife knocking her out. he said that when the woman came to, she grabbed a knife and stabbed her husband in the upper body. authorities say both were taken to the hospital but expected to recover and they say charges will be filed against the couple. with the help of smartphones, plenty of people are leaving their cameras at home. but what if you could have the help of a professional photographer anywhere you go? >> reporter: solo traveler nicole has a serious case of wander lust. >> i have a bucket list and i'm checking them off. >> reporter: but selfies aren't enough to document her magical moments around the world.

sunset and exploring from above in a hot air balloon. >> it reminds me that i have been on some marvelous adventures. >> reporter: these memories were captureed in photographs taken by tracy swift. we're photographers but also want to be a part of the experience. >> reporter: it's a personal photographer who meets the clients at their destination, and they also become tour guides too. the company employees 300 around the world. marriage proposals and honeymoons are the most popular assignments. but swift has done all sorts of shoots. in ethiopia she took these images of a canadian woman picking up her newly adopted daughter. >> it was incredible. she's still my friend to this day. there.

>> i feel like she's a great friend. >> reporter: she also provided the illustrations to go along with her stories of a lifetime. >> they're available in 150 cities across the world. packages start at $250 for a half hour photo shoot. it's time for our mom of the day. she is rose lynn gunter. she is the mother of four. her daughter says her mother is special because she has a kind heart and spirit and loves to help out others within the community and has done so much for others, she says. she's doing an excellent job raising her children and they love her so much. she is a super mom. congratulations to roslyn. if you would like to nominate your mom, go to wltx.com, click on the banner to send in your

now for our word of the day. today's word is probity. we have a break this

returns, but the day is here, it's time to celebrate the new year, and nearly 30,000 people will pack downtown columbia for the state house for the famously hot new year tonight. megan rivers is in studio to tell us what we need to know. >> i'm joined with ms. barbara rex who is with famously hot new year. tell me what all is going to be happening downtown today. >> today will be the really big day as we prepare for the gates to open at 6:30 this evening. we'll have a number of streets closed. people need to be conscious of the fact a lot of the downtown areas not easy to get through, so they should fix their routes appropriately.

downtown, but not nearly enough for the 30,000 people we're excepting. we have six park and ride, at most of the wal-marts. people can buy a 3wrist band, go back and forth safely and not have to worry about parking. then the gates open at 6:30 and we're ready to go. >> you said some of the garages downtown will be open for free. what are some of those that will be open? >> all city opened garages are open. there are some private garages as well. there's a garage at taylor and assembly street. another one at taylor and sumter street. there's one on lady street. there's one refer to it as behind the marriott. a lot of people think of it as the marriott parking garage, but it's city owned. they're all free as of 4:00 in the afternoon. >> i understand you'll be

can you explain what that's about? >> yep. we are working closely with the 1 sc flood fund to help -- we made a lot of contributions, everybody made a lot of contributions when we had the flood in october. but those same people are going to take a year or years to recover. so we're taking donations of nonperishable goods at all of our gates. we're taking cash and checks at each gate as well. we'll have a text to give flashing on the screen throughout the evening. we encourage everybody to remember that, while the floods themselves, i don't know, it seems rainy now, but the floods themselves are over. the damage that has been done to the survivors is not over and we need to continue thinking about how to help them in the new year, which is coming up. >> right. you've told me before we came on camera that rain or shine,

this is still going on? >> absolutely. it is a rain or shine event. bring your parka just in case. we have bag checks so don't bring anything that you shouldn't be bringing. rain or shine, we'll be there with our three local bands, or our three south carolina bands. mislauryn hill our headliner. the most colossal fireworks in the two carolinas coming up over the state house grounds. if you haven't seen it before, be there. we'll see you rain or shine carolina's main street. >> thank you, barbara for coming in. again, the festivities are all day long and if you want to catch the coverage here onair, you can tune in. we'll be live from 11:00 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. and i'm going to send things back to you. thank you, megan. let's toss it over to efren for whether we are going to need

tonight to the famously hot new year. festivities there start at 6:30. >> considering the fact we've been dealing with the rain the last several days, if you don't have the umbrella in your vehicle yet, you'll want to put that in there. now the temperatures, a lot milder than we had over the last several mornings. 66 sumter. manning at 63. bishopville at 65. newberry, 63. lexington 66. columbia at 67. over the last several hours we've had light to moderate to heavy rainfall moving through parts of the western and northern midlands. heaviest concentrations in the

quite a bit of rain prosperity, jenkinsville and chapin. be aware we are still under a flood watch, but now it's been extended. national weather service has extended this until 10:00 this morning. still for the same counties along interstate 20 and points to the north and western midlands, because a lot more rain is coming through from central and southern georgia moving to the northeast at about 30 miles per hour. our computer model shows all throughout the morning and by midday we'll still continue with light to moderate showers. as we get into the afternoon, the showers will start to develop and unfortunately now it does look like along i-20 and points south we could be looking at moderate to heavy rainfall, especially the southern midlands and lowcountry. by midday and afternoon, clouds will stick around but not the rain. forecast upper 60s lower 70s. in columbia, a high of 69 degrees. the rain will continue not only

but we still have that chance of rain to continue into the overnight hours. 54 in columbia, as all our lows will generally be in the lower to middle 50s. still chance of rain, by midnight for famously hot new year, 56 degrees. then the temperatures start getting to where they're supposed to be, with some sunshine coming back on saturday and sunday. highs in the middle 50s. but as we get into monday morning, only 35 degrees for morning low. 29 possible by tuesday morning. but the sunshine will return. if you're heading out now anywhere in the middle, give yourself a lot of extra time. here on i-26, headlights are heading from piney grove road to st. andrews, traffic is light but wet roadways. we'll be looking at the wet

bit of a delay, north on 321 from airport road to knox abbott, the only delay now. shaw air force base to fort jackson, 40 minutes. from i-26 and i-77 heading to fort jackson, you're looking at about 11-minute commute.

it is almost that time of year again, and i'm not talking about new year's, but girl scout cookie season. the second year in a row they're doing digital orders.

know a girl scout to order online. they invite you to the web site so they can get credit. sales begin here next week. southern coffee drinkers turned to the gingerbread latte, the most ordered holiday drink at starbucks in several southern states. alaska, washington, oregon the eggnog. texas liked the chestnut praline. northeast liked the holiday spice. california liked ice coffee. the ordering habits were tracked by the beverage orders sold per 1,000 customers. coming up on news 19 this morning, some year-end mistakes

money man matt gra good morning and happy new year's eve. thanks for waking up with news 19 this morning. i'm mary sturgill. we are in for another round of rainy weather today. hopefully it will be clearing up before tonight. meteorologist efren afante joins us now. efren, i'm hoping we can put the umbrellas away. >> maybe. we won't be able to put away the umbrellas, not today. i'm sorry to say, we still have light to moderate to even heavy rainfall moving through the midlands. it's been primarily in the northwest and northern midlands. heaviest concentration the northern midlands with a few

eastern fairfield county, now the far western parts of kershaw county. that's where the heaviest is, as most of us are dry for now. still mild temperatures, 67 aiken. bishopville at 65. columbia 67 degrees. our temperatures are not going to deviate by much. middle to upper 60s throughout the morning, with a chance for light to moderate rainfall. into the afternoon as we barely get to 69 degrees, moderate to perhaps heavy rainfall and that will continue right through until about 6:00 this afternoon. as you get ready to head out to the door, head out if you're doing shopping, getting ready for new year's eve or heading to work, give yourself extra time, because traffic has been picking up on i-26 between st. andrews and piney grove. roads are wet. no incidents reported. further southeast part of

moving along on garners ferry crossing i-77. from i-26 and harbison, 13 minutes. from i-77 and blythewood heading to downtown, 23 minutes. we'll look at your seven-day forecast and the most important famously hot new year midnight forecast in a few minutes. >> thank you, efren. going to lexington county now, where a gaston man is behind bars charged with helping his wife commit suicide. he's 63-year-old randy gene jones. deputies say his wife, karen jones, was found dead inside a hotel room on burning tree drive. officers say they believe jonesfully assisted in her suicide between the afternoon of december 20th and the morning of december 21st. the deputies found her body inside the room with mr. jones when they arrived around lunchtime december 22nd. in response to what was originally dispatched as a civil dispute.

a bond of more than $32,000. a judge also ordered jones to undergo a mental evaluation. the case remains under investigation. meanwhile, in the upstate police have alreadyed a woman think the death of her husband who was found dead behind a hardee's restaurant over the weekend. police say her husband was found behind the hardees and died later at the hospital. wright is charged with hit-and- run resulting in death. she is now in the spartanburg county jail under no bond. taking a look at your "usa today" headlines, bill cosby is free on $1 million bail this morning, until his next court appearance in january. the 78-year-old comedian was charged with sexual assault yesterday. the charge stems from a 2004 encounter at cosby's home with former temple university employee andrea constan.

to 10 years behind bars. his attorney says the charge is unjustified and cosby will be cleared. up to a million people expected to ring in the new year in times square tonight. they'll be joined by nearly 6,000 uniformed and undercover police officers. the head of the city's counterterrorism unit says new york city will be the safest place on earth to be this new year's eve. at least 21 passengers board an air canadian boeing air 77 were sent to the hospital after their flight encountered severe turbulence. officials say the injuries were nonlife-threatening neck and back injuries. 332 passengers and 19 crew members were on that flight, which was diverted to calgary. turning to politics now, a couple of gop presidential contenders made their way through south carolina. jeb bush hosted a meet and greet in lexington at the

last night. the former florida governor spoke to a packed house there on russia's relationship with the u.s. and how to empower working class americans. >> one of the things i know to be true is we're on the verge of one of the greatest times to be alive in this world. but we have a government not working and because of that our aspirations are being held back. whatever your ideas are about taxes, about regulation, about fixing our entitlement mess, because it has to be fixed, we cannot be in denial forever or the next generation will never have a chance to be able to have any possibilities of living a life of purpose and meaning. all those things, how we regulate, all those things can't happen unless we change the culture in washington. >> south carolina holds the first primary in the south february 20th. the republican front-runner was also in south carolina.

speaking at the westin there. he talked about climate change, foreign policy. he got one of his biggest applause when he spoke about strengthening the country's military. >> but we're going to build the strongest, most powerful military ever, and let me just tell you, let me just tell you a little secret, the cheapest thing we can do, we're never going to have to use it. i don't think we'll have to use it. don't forget, they talk about my tone. i remember when jeb and hillary the same day, mr. trump's tone is not nice. they're chopping off christians' heads in syria and other places and they want me to have a nice tone, isn't life wonderful, okay? look, we've got to be tough, we've got to be smart. we got to have heart, too. we got to have heart and take care of people. we have to fix our health care program. obamacare is a disaster. you people know. you people know. >> trump also spoke about his recent attacks against former

he once again implied hillary is a hypocrite for claiming he is degrading to women, considering president clinton's past affairs. we're on your side with boil water advisories. there's an advisory issued for all addresses in the 400 through 600 blocks of old barnwell road. also all the addresses on lynn drive and bell-air drive and anyone in the savannah woods subdivision. you should boil your water for one full minute before you use it to cook or drink. also an advisory this saturday, the water line relocation that was supposed to have happened tuesday had to be postponed due to the weather. so they will relocate those lines on saturday from 9:00 a.m. until 8:00 p.m. that's happening near the lee heart and mineral springs road. customers won't have water, but once the water is back on you'll need to boil it for at least a minute before you use it.

year again, girl scout cookies season. the second year in a row they're doing digital orders. there is a catch, though. you have to know a girl scout to order online. they invite you to the web site so they can get credit for your order. sales begin here in the midlands next week. let's toss it to money man matt granite now for ways you can save this morning. >> that countdown is ticking. great to be with you for your flexible spending account. there are all sorts of rules and regulations that restrict not only how much you can roll over, but in most cases use it or lose it with no more than $500, this year able to go to next year. one of my favorite resources, the nsastore.com allows you to put that account to good use. look at your key to using it on essentials. these are items that you use on the beauty, home health care and many of the items that you

your life. what would i buy? what could i use? 70% off prescription lenses is a great perk you can find. there's a full list of fsa perks as well as fsa eligible items. you can search by category. keep in mind, if your account will not work for you next year and you need to put those resources or cash to better use, this is your key fsastore.com. back to you. >> all right, for more information go to wltx.com. still to come, all this rain we've had is causing flooding issues. we'll have more on who that affects. >> though we have showers

rain from central delays are starting to

showers and storms welcome back to news 19 on this new year's eve morning. we are starting off once again with showers, some of them storms moving through the midlands. heaviest concentration is well into the northern part of of the midlands as we see showers developing. we had a few thunderstorms earlier, about an hour ago,

i-77, fairfield county moving into pretty much the heaviest concentration in extreme northwestern kershaw county. we are watching all these, no lightning strikes. but do expect heavy downpours throughout the morning. columbia, 67 degrees. winds are calm. overcast skies. rain hasn't fallen so far this morning. but our computer model shows throughout the morning we have a chance for light showers. as we get into the afternoon, different story. some light to moderate showers could develop. but sadly, towards midnight, along and south of i-20 into southern midlands in the lowcountry we're expecting a little bit more moderate to heavy rainfall continuing into the early morning. but midday into the afternoon, only thing left over is cloud coverage. 65 forecast high in columbia. midnight, chance of rain. 56 degrees.

by new year's day we'll start to clear out. into the afternoon high of 58. 53 saturday. 55 sunday. as the sunshine returns, so do the winter temperatures. 30s. most of you are going to be heading out this morning for your last day of work before starting the holiday. traffic conditions on i-26 between st. andrews and piney grove road, traffic picking up, but light and roadways are still wet. no issues on 321 from the split past pine ridge to i-26 other than southbound 321 by fish

time now is about sce&g officials are monitoring water levels at lake murray and the lower saluda river after they released water into the river from the dam. they decided to let the water after heavy rainfall allowed significant inflow into the dam. after the october flooding they opened four spill ways. now they just have opened one. the rain we're seeing today is going to make one situation in particular worse. you may have noticed the flooding surrounding the metropolitan waste water treatment plant in columbia. the low lying area was soaked during the flood. now because of the consistent rain, the water has nowhere to go, and blocks the main entrance into the plant. the facility's management says the water hasn't affected operations within the plant,

been made to get workers in and out of the area. >> our staff are able to park in a secondary area and we use city vehicles to traffic, carpool them in so that they can get to the plant and keep it operational. >> to stay up-to-date, follow news 19 on social media and sign up for text alerts. you can do that on wltx.com. richland county deputy is a step closer to getting home. kim mcgregor was rescued from her home in irmo during the flood. though she has flood insurance for structure damage, she has to pay out of pocket for all the contents. she had just asked her parents for $3,000 to help when she was presented for a check for that exact amount by salud da residents. they teamed up with churches in

she said it allowed her to continue construction without stopping. >> a big help, because i needed that second draw for them to continue work before the flood money came back, so that continued the work instead of being put off in general. >> the saluda community says they were lucky to not have much damage from the flood. they raised over $15,000 during their event. still to come, a fight over chicken dinner lands two people in the hospital. why they may be facing charges on top of the injuries. we'll talk with bill cosby's lawyer about his charges, and what's next in the case. fighting fake olive oil in italy. one sip at a time.

report on the thanks for waking up with news 19 this morning. it's thursday, december 31st. happy new year's eve. it's 6:55. let's get to today's top stories. the search continues in sumter as police there look for three suspects in connection with attempted murder. they're looking for 21-year-old henry dingle, 20-year-old kevin smith, and 18-year-old william spann. all three believed to be armed and dangerous. if you know where they might be you're asked to call crimestoppers. richland county authorities say a husband and wife's fight over chicken dinner landed both in the hospital.

punched the wife. when she came to, she grabbed a knife and stabbed her husband in the upper body. both are expected to recover. police say charges will be filed against the couple. let's toss it over to efren for a quick look at our traffic. >> right now we're looking at i- 26, this is by mile marker 105, heading towards saint andrews road, traffic is light, but has been moving steadily and no issues on i-26 and no issues heading to columbia. divine street looking good to downtown. both directions of 321 and sunset boulevard from lexington or west columbia both directions moving pretty good at this time. here in columbia we're at 67 degrees. no rain as of yet. overcast skies. the winds are calm. but doppler radar shows we've had rain activity in the northern midlands. heaviest in the northern part,

kershaw and all that continues to move to the northeast, generally at about 30 miles per hour. flood watch in effect, until 10:00 this morning for most of our countys in the midlands because a lot of rainfall central georgia. all this continues to move to the northeast. so rain chances unfortunately will continue. our computer model shows as we get into the afternoon, more showers will start to develop, but unfortunately by midnight along and south of i-20 we could see moderate to heavy rainfall. all of that will be out of here by tomorrow and we'll have pretty much cloudy skies. high today, 69 with a chance of rain throughout the day. as we get ready for midnight, we're looking at 56 degrees, bring the poncho. slight chance of rain. mild and muggy. by tomorrow afternoon, 58 for a lie. this weekend the sunshine returns, but so do the winter temperatures. looking for temperatures in the

the 30s for lows. mary. thank you, efren. the big event is tonight, famously hot new year celebration begins of course. grammy award winning artist lauryn hill is headlining this year. famously hot new year is free. of course, just like last year, if you would rather watch it from home, news 19 will be broadcasting the event live from 11:00 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. for you. if you're planning to go out tonight and will be drinking, cab rides will be stationed near the fountain at 5-points, tin roof vista and corner of lady and sumter streets downtown from 11:00 p.m. to 3:00 a.m. new year's day. first ten dollars is covered as long as you're going to a residence or hotel in richland or lexington counties. you must call prior to the ride or let you know you're a kw

and usc will be collecting donations for harvest hope. volunteers will be at all the entrances. they're collecting caned goods and of course monetary donations as well. you can take a little and give a little. adventure children's museum has a count down starting at 9:00 a.m. they're hosting a kids' party and before noon they'll have a countdown. the matter is -- party is free with museum admission. lots for everyone to do. festivities start downtown at 6:30. >> until 12:30. all fun for everyone tonight. >> thanks, efren. and thank you.