Midday Roundup: 1,000-year flood engulfs parts of Carolinas

Historic rains. Rain continues to fall in South Carolina today in what the governor is calling a once-in-1,000-years rainfall event. Floods have caused at least nine deaths in the Carolinas in the last week. The coastal counties of Charleston and Dorchester, S.C., have been especially hard hit, and rescue operations also are underway in the state capital of Columbia. Some parts of the Carolinas have received more rain in three days than they typically get in an entire season.

Kunduz catastrophe. The Pentagon is launching a full-scale investigation into a bombing attack gone bad in northern Afghanistan. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter is calling a U.S. airstrike on the city of Kunduz a tragic incident. That attack destroyed a Doctors Without Borders hospital, killing 12 doctors and 10 patients at the facility and wounding nearly 40 others. Senior Pentagon officials say Taliban fighters were inside the facility firing at U.S. ground forces when the airstrike occurred, but Doctors Without Borders denies that militants were using the building. Retired Army Gen. Bob Scales said part of the problem could be the United States’ having to rely on poorly trained Afghan forces: “If you don’t have reliable people on the ground to spot for the bombs, eventually, the bombs are going to go where they shouldn’t.” Doctors Without Borders insists both the Afghan and U.S. militaries knew the location of the humanitarian facility.

More shooting fears. Universities in Philadelphia are on high-alert after an anonymous threat of violence appeared on the website 4chan. The message warned of an incident planned at an unspecified college at 2 p.m. today. Drexel University urged students to keep an eye out for suspicious activity or packages. 4chan is the same site where someone posted threats against a college in the northwest before last week’s deadly mass shooting at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Ore.

Trade deal. The U.S. and other nations announced this morning an agreement on the Trans-Pacific Partnership that will ease trade between 11 countries responsible for 40 percent of the world’s economic output, NPR reported. The deal reduces taxes and barriers to trade between countries such as the United States, Canada, Australia, Japan, Mexico, Malaysia, and Vietnam. Congress still has to ratify the agreement, which has many opponents on Capitol Hill.

Freed. North Korea has agreed to release a former New York University student held captive for six months. Joo Won-Moon, a 21-year-old South Korean citizen with permanent U.S. residency, was arrested for illegally crossing the border from China into North Korea in April. Throughout his imprisonment, Joo appeared occasionally at news conferences, giving statements that are believed to have been coerced. At least three other South Koreans—two of whom received life sentences for spying—are jailed in the North.

Lost at sea. A 790-foot cargo ship headed to Puerto Rico from the U.S. sank off the Bahamas during Hurricane Joaquin. The U.S. Coast Guard is searching for survivors from the crew, which included 28 Americans and five people from Poland. Rescuers have spotted an oil sheen and floating pieces of containers in the ocean, but so far have found no crew members alive.

WORLD Radio’s Kent Covington and Jim Henry and the Associated Press contributed to this report.