Storms roar through SC

[krazeeboi]

I know we didn't experience anything as notable as a tornado tearing through the downtown of one of our major cities like Atlanta this past weekend, but some of our smaller towns experienced a lot of damage this past weekend due to the storms and tornados we experienced. In particular, my own hometown (on my mother's side) of Branchville, in southern Orangeburg County, experienced pretty extensive damage. Many of the buildings were severely damaged, including the town hall. The town is known as being the site of the world's first railroad junction, and there was a historic section of downtown used for the "Railroad Daze" festival that was pretty much wiped out. A downtown landmark, The Churn restaurant, which specializes in homemade ice cream, was severely damaged as well. The town's only grocery store was practically ripped to shreds. Thankfully, in all of this, there was no loss of life--but the town will never be the same. The storms did similar damage in other smaller towns in the Midlands and Lowcountry as well.

[GvilleSC]

Only the three tornadoes in the viewing area of the Greenville-Spartanburg-Asheville-Anderson TV market have been covered extensively via the news in the Upstate (at least on WYFF). Apparently the strongest of the three was the EF3 in Newberry County. I believe ATL's was only an EF2 they said.

It will be a difficult time for those who must rebuild or physically heal, but my thoughts and prayers are with them all.

[krazeeboi]

^Definitely. The sad thing in the case of my hometown is that it looks like they will receive little in the way of state aid. Hopefully our representatives in Washington can pull some strings to get some federal funds flowing through the pipeline.

[Spartan]

I have family in the Blythewood area of Columbia, and they had tennis ball sized hail.

[flotownscot]

A friend of mine in Timmonsville home was destroyed and one of her horses was killed by flying debris. She had extensive damage all over her farm.

[krazeeboi]

I don't think we've seen this many storms in such a short period of time in a while.

[Captain Worley]

Since 1984 according to Jim Gandy, but I honestly can't remember anything noteworthy back then. I remember the storms through Lexco in 1989...

[monsoon]

I remember the storm in the spring of 1984. A bunch of tornados spawned in the state and tore it up one afternoon. It happened in a very short amount of time and was unexpected.

[Spartan]

Its a good thing that meteorology has significantly advanced over the past 24 years. The reports I saw made a relatively accurate prediction of what was to come.

[Spartan]

The SC Insurance News Service has reported that the damage form the storms is now estimated at $30 million.

Article

[krazeeboi]

^That figure might not look like a lot, but for many of the small towns that were devastated (like my hometown), it's a small fortune.

[davidals]

Since 1984 according to Jim Gandy, but I honestly can't remember anything noteworthy back then. I remember the storms through Lexco in 1989...