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Two mental health officials drowned inside a sheriff's office van that was overtaken by flooding on a South Carolina highway, officials said Wednesday. .
The deputies who were carrying the two women survived, but were placed on administrative leave while their actions are under investigation.
Horry County Sheriff Phillip Thompson said MPs were caught in a flood Tuesday evening about half a mile from the Little Pee Dee River en route to a mental health center.
While the two deputies were trying to free the women, confined in a section of the van, they could not open the back doors.
"I do not know if that's the way the van was positioned or the water pressure," Thompson said at a press conference Wednesday.
The sheriff said the MPs had tried in vain to help the patients "for a long time", but eventually found refuge at the top of their vehicle as the waters rose.
The Marion County rescue teams were dispatched to the scene and saved the MPs, who were later identified as Stephen Flood, a sheriff's veteran for 10 years and Joshua Bishop.
A Marion County coroner confirmed both deaths and identified patients as Wendy Winston, 45, and Nicolette Green, 43.
The divers were unable to pick up the van on Tuesday due to security concerns. Thompson said that he was stuck Wednesday afternoon, but that an expert diver was called to help tow him with a cable.
Horry County officials earlier identified the victims as "inmates", but the Marion County Coroner said they were mentally ill patients. They were transported from their hospitals near the coast to a behavioral center located further inland from Florence.
It is unclear why MPs made the dangerous journey through a flood zone and prevented patients from getting out of the vehicle.
Thompson stated that he did not believe that women were being held back during their transportation.
He added that a probate order required that women be transported on Tuesday – just as the Little Pee Dee River reached a major flood level – but he could not say if members had the power to cancel demand the road.
He added that there were barriers on the road and that the van might have bypassed them.
"We have to figure out why they did it," Thompson said. Both deputies were put on administrative leave during the investigation.
Women's deaths have killed at least 35 people since Florence hit the coast on Friday as a Category 1 storm.
Most of the deaths occurred in North Carolina, where entire communities have been virtually cut off by floods and are struggling with rivers at record levels.
The Cape Fear River in Fayetteville reached over 61 feet on Wednesday morning, exceeding the level reached during Hurricane Matthew in 2016. Residents along the banks were evacuated as a precaution.
"It's incredible compared to Matthew," resident Kurt Reed told the NBC affiliate. "It was a creeping death."
Elsewhere, the Little River along the county line of Harnett-Cumberland swallowed houses. In the Manchester area, the river is expected to reach nearly 40 feet Wednesday morning, more than double the level of flooding.
President Donald Trump landed Wednesday morning in North Carolina at Marine Corps Cherry Point Air Station in Havelock, as part of a tour of the storm-ravaged region.
Roy Cooper, the state's governor, said that North Carolina "took a punch" and that people continued to be threatened by rising rivers.
Trump promised that the federal government would quickly provide all the federal funding needed to restore Hurricane Florence.
"There will be nothing left to do," he said. "You will have everything you need."
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