(CNN) The skies have cleared but uncertainty still envelops the lives of many South Carolina residents who have been left on a knife's edge, wondering whether their homes will be washed away in the aftermath of a historic deluge.
Hours after calling for evacuations and saying the failure of Beaver Creek Dam in Columbia was imminent, authorities said they had managed to stabilize the dam and that evacuations were voluntary.
But officials cautioned that the evolving situation only served to highlight the repercussions of extreme rainfall, even long after the sunshine has returned.
"Things are about to get worse on the coast," Gov. Nikki Haley told reporters Wednesday. "It's not over yet."
Two people who went missing in floodwaters earlier Wednesday were found dead, according to the Richland County Sheriff's Department.
Lt. Curtis Wilson told CNN the two victims were in a truck with three other people when it washed away.
Haley told reporters earlier that the victims were part of a work crew that drove around a barricade and their truck was overcome by water.
"While sun is out," she said, "this event is not over... Do not move barricades."
So far, at least 19 people have died in weather-related incidents: 17 in South Carolina and two in North Carolina.
At least 600 rescues of people and animals have been made, Haley said. More than 300 people were still staying in 23 shelters.
The past two days have been "very tenuous," said Jim Lehman, a member of the Beaver Dam Lake Owners Association and an area homeowner.
Map: Compromised dams in S.C.
Haley declined to address questions about the state's infrastructure, saying the focus was on response and recovery and that the broader issues will be looked at later.
A day earlier, the governor refused to provide an estimated cost of the damage -- which she called "disturbing" -- but said state and Federal Emergency Management Agency officials were making assessments.
"It's hard to look at the loss we're going to have," she said. "This could be any amount of dollars."
More than 400,000 of the state's 4.8 million residents were under a boil-water advisory, which affects about 16 water systems, said Jim Beasley, a spokesman for the S.C. Emergency Response Team.
At least 13 dams have failed since Saturday, Haley said. Another 62 dams were being monitored.
One failure, of the Overcreek Bridge dam in Forest Acres, sent a torrent of floodwater raging downstream and forced evacuations in the city, which adjoins Columbia.
Officials allowed water to breach at least one other dam, also in Richland County. Officials conduct these controlled breaches "to prevent a much larger incident and a much larger amount of water escaping from the dam," emergency management spokesman Derrec Becker said.
Haley said National Guard members were helping with sandbagging operations and other mitigation efforts.
Devastating hurricanes of the last 30 years
The last 30 years have brought plenty of deadly and destructive storms to the United States, including 2005's Hurricane Katrina (here, police and others use boats to rescue people in a flooded New Orleans neighborhood). Click through the gallery to see more photos of disastrous hurricanes over the last three decades, and
check out this video to find out which states have been hit the most often.
Sandy, 2012: It technically lost its hurricane status shortly before striking New Jersey, but its gigantic size -- it covered 1.8 million square miles at landfall -- sent devastating storm surges to the coast. Here, a man looks for pieces of his beach house after
Sandy demolished it in Seaside Heights, New Jersey. With 72 directly killed in eight states, this was the most deadly tropical cyclone outside the South since 1972's Hurricane Agnes. At least 650,000 U.S. homes were damaged or destroyed in the U.S.
Irene, 2011: After hitting North Carolina,
Irene did most of its damage in the way of heavy rain and flooding in New York and New England. In southern Vermont alone, nearly 2,400 roads were damaged or destroyed, NOAA says. Here, Tony Carr carries a TV set September 1 from his home, which was destroyed by Irene-related floods in Prattsville, New York.
Ike, 2008: After killing scores in the Caribbean, Ike turned to Texas, sending storm surges that leveled homes on Galveston Island. It's remnants did extensive damage as far north as Ohio, where 2.6 million people lost power. Here, an Air Force Reserve pararescueman scans the ravaged Texas landscape shortly after Ike.
Katrina, 2005: Unforgettable
Katrina -- the costliest hurricane and one of the five deadliest to hit the United States, according to NOAA -- devastated the Gulf Coast days after crossing Florida. Flooding destroyed thousands of homes in the New Orleans area alone; storm surges wiped out coastal towns in Mississippi. Here, people stand stranded on a roof in New Orleans.
Rita, 2005: Just a month after Katrina,
Hurricane Rita piled on, slamming into the Louisiana coast. Wind, rain and tornadoes left billions in damages from eastern Texas to Alabama. Here, surging water from Rita reach the streets of New Orleans' Ninth Ward, topping a levee that had just been patched after Katrina damaged it.
Wilma, 2005: The year might be remembered for the one-two punch of Katrina and Rita, but
Wilma, which hit Florida after devastating Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, would become (as of May 2015) the U.S.'s fifth most costly cyclone. Here, workers remove debris from a Miami flower and plant shop on October 28. Millions were without power in the state.
Beta, 2005: Beta wasn't one of the most devastating cyclones, but we include it here to make a point: There were so many named storms in the Atlantic in 2005 that forecasters' pre-approved 21-name list for the year was exhausted. So they went to the Greek alphabet six times, including for Hurricane Beta, which directly hit part of Nicaragua. Here, people wade through a street flooded by Beta in Honduras on October 30.
Ivan, 2004: This year also was hurricane-heavy, punctuated by
Ivan, a storm with two lives. First, it killed dozens in the Caribbean and slammed into Alabama. Later, its remnants went back over Florida from the Atlantic and re-formed in the Gulf as a tropical storm, making another landfall in southwestern Louisiana. It spawned more than 100 tornadoes, one of the factors that left considerable damage across the Southeast and some mid-Atlantic states. Here, a woman walks over debris as she visits her home, destroyed by Ivan, in Perdido Key, Florida, on September 20.
Floyd, 1999: Deadly flooding, especially in North Carolina, was one of Floyd's main legacies. Parts of eastern North Carolina and Virginia received 15 to 20 inches of rain, and flooding led to the razing of thousands of buildings -- most of them homes -- from North Carolina to New Jersey. At the time, it was the deadliest U.S. hurricane since 1972. Here,a beach house, severely damaged by Floyd, sits crumbled sits in the sand on the Oak Island town of Long Beach, North Carolina, on November 10.
Andrew, 1992:
Andrew blasted its way across south Florida on August 24 as a Category 4 with peak gusts measured at 164 mph. After raking entire neighborhoods in an around Homestead, it moved across the Gulf to hit Louisiana as a Category 3. It was responsible for 23 U.S. deaths and three in the Bahamas. Here, a sailboat sits on a sidewalk at Dinner Key in Miami after Andrew washed it ashore.
Hugo, 1989:
Hugo ripped through the Carolinas, starting with Charleston, South Carolina, on September 22 as a Category 4 after raking the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. Here, a man stands in a destroyed house on September 27 in South Carolina.
A 13-mile section of Interstate 95, which cuts through the eastern part of the state, remained closed.
2015 Atlantic hurricane season fast facts
The flooding is far from over. Rivers might not crest for another two weeks, CNN meteorologist Chad Myers said.
And the mayor of Columbia, who has said he believes damage "will probably be in the billions of dollars," is bracing for more trouble.
"We aren't close to being out of the woods," Mayor Steve Benjamin said Tuesday, adding that even more dams could be in danger of breaking or being topped by water. "We still expect the water to start coming down from the Upstate, coming downhill to the Midlands."
South Carolina flooding: 'We have lost everything'
The situation is the result of a weather system that funneled tropical moisture into South Carolina last week and refused to move on, Myers said.
"It was a garden hose that just kept pouring ashore in one spot, and that spot was South Carolina," he said.
Saturday's college football game between South Carolina and Louisiana State -- which was to be played in Columbia -- has been relocated to LSU's home field in Baton Rouge, the University of South Carolina athletics department said in a statement.
"Yesterday, we made the extremely difficult decision to cancel classes for the week due to the stress 34,000 students would place on the region's recovering infrastructure," university President Harris Pastides said. "There is no doubt 85,000 fans would exact the same toll."
Al Roker apologizes after outrage over South Carolina flood selfie
CNN's Nick Valencia, Tina Burnside, Michael Pearson, Dave Alsup, Jeremy Grisham, Sam Stringer, Tony Marco, Shawn Nottingham and Jill Martin contributed to this report.