Polly Sim sorts through belongings outside her mother's flooded home in Columbia, S.C., on Tuesday. More than 3 feet of water inundated the townhome, destroying furniture and keepsakes and washing away a garden maintained by Sim's mother, who was Miss South Carolina 1954.

COLUMBIA, S.C. — The family of Miss South Carolina 1954 found her flood-soaked pageant scrapbook on a dining room floor littered with dead fish on Tuesday, as the first sunny day in nearly two weeks provided a chance to clean up from historic floods.

“I would hate for her to see it like this. She would be crushed,” said Polly Sim, who moved her 80-year-old mother into a nursing home just before the rainstorm hit.

Homeowners were keeping close watch on swollen waterways as they pried open swollen doors and tore out soaked carpets. So far, at least 17 people have died in the floods in the Carolinas.

Sim’s mother, known as Polly Rankin Suber when she competed in the Miss America contest, had lived since 1972 in the unit, where more than 3 feet of muddy water toppled her washing machine and turned the wallboard to mush.

“There’s no way it will be what it was,” said Sim. “My mom was so eccentric, had her own funky style of decorating, there’s no way anyone could duplicate that. Never.”

Officials warned that new evacuations could come as water flows toward the sea, threatening dams and displacing residents.

Of particular concern was the low country, where the Santee, Edisto and other rivers flow. Gov. Nikki Haley warned that several rivers were rising and had yet to reach their peaks.

In downtown Columbia, about 200 workers rushed to fix a breach in a canal that is threatening the city’s water supply to its 375,000 customers. The city’s main intake valve is in the canal, and the water level was steadily dropping.

Haley said it was too soon to estimate the damage, which could be “any amount of dollars.” The Republican governor quickly got a federal disaster declaration from President Barack Obama.

Water distribution was a challenge. In the region around Columbia, as thousands of homes lacked drinking water, and Mayor Steve Benjamin said water customers will likely have to boil their water before drinking or cooking for “quite some time.”

The power grid was returning to normal after nearly 30,000 customers lost electricity. Roads and bridges were taking longer to restore: Some 200 engineers were inspecting about 470 spots that remained closed Tuesday, including a 75-mile stretch of Interstate 95.