23-year-old man drowns in overturned truck in Georgetown County

A 23-year-old Georgetown County man died early Sunday after a truck he was riding in overturned in floodwaters, according to county Coroner Kenny Johnson.

Michael Dalton Prince was trapped in the flooded vehicle and drowned, Johnson said Sunday. He was found unresponsive and declared dead at the scene by emergency response officials around 2:30 a.m.

Prince was in the truck with two other people, Johnson said. Those people were able to escape the vehicle after it overturned into a ditch along Plantersville Road. The South Carolina Highway Patrol said Sunday that they were taken to the hospital.

Troopers say the fatality and vehicle incident are under investigation.

The truck overturned, Johnson said, due to water running over the roadway. The truck was pushed off the road by the running water and into the ditch, which was overflowing with water from recent heavy rain caused by Florence.

Local government officials on the Grand Strand say life-threatening flooding is likely to continue this week for Horry and Georgetown counties. A total of four counties in the area are under a flood advisory as of Sunday afternoon.

Fourteen deaths in North Carolina and South Carolina have been blamed on Florence, which began as a hurricane but is now classified as a tropical depression.

This story was originally published September 16, 2018 at 11:57 AM.