Carnival cruise passengers returned to port to find their cars flooded after storms battered the East Coast

• Carnival Sunshine passengers returned to Charleston last week to find their cars flooded. 
• The area had been pummeled by record rainfall and flooding, local news outlets reported. 
• One passenger told CNN their car was totaled due to the damage.

Some Carnival Sunshine passengers arrived in Charleston, South Carolina, on Monday to find their cars flooded — and in some cases, totaled — after a Nor'easter hit the East Coast.

Cruisers told CNN they had not been informed about what awaited them at the South Carolina Ports Authority upon returning from their cruise to the Bahamas. According to Fox Weather, the area had been pummeled by "record rain and historic coastal flooding" the day before cruisers returned. The National Weather Service also reported the fourth-highest tide on record.

"It was left up to us to find out that our cars wouldn't start and were totally destroyed," passenger Stephanie Royal told the outlet. Royal said that her car had been totaled from the storm.

Carnival Cruise Lines did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment, but told CNN: "We regret that some of our guests' vehicles parked in the port's lot were impacted by the recent storm."

"We assisted in some ways where we could, for instance with helping guests connect with their insurance providers, but ultimately this was not our facility," the statement continued.

The cruise line directed further comment to the South Carolina Ports Authority, which told local news outlet WCIV that its employees helped passengers contact tow companies, jump vehicles, and pump out water. The SCPA did not immediately respond to a request for comment, sent outside regular working hours.

In a statement to WCIV, the port authority said: "While SC Ports does not assume liability for vehicles or personal property left in the passenger parking areas, we are committed to continuing to support our valued cruise customers."

An MSC cruise ship Foto: Photo by Gerard Bottino/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

The storm that totaled some passengers' cars also affected other cruisers around the country.

On December 15, the night before they were due to set sail, MSC Cruise passengers discovered that their cruise, which was scheduled to travel to the Bahamas, was instead being rerouted to Massachusetts, Maine, and Canada.

An email sent to passengers and viewed by BI said that MSC had "significantly altered the itinerary" due to "adverse weather conditions expected across Florida and the Bahamas."

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