‘Mean’ winds damage buildings, fell trees; funeral home, UFO Welcome Center damaged

Strong winds wreaked havoc early Monday morning, downing trees and causing structural damage in isolated spots in The T&D Region.

Ott Funeral Home in Branchville had a portion of its roof torn off during the storm.

“I didn’t hear anything,” funeral home owner Louie Ott said. He lives next door.

“I didn’t know anything until the fire department knocked on the door this morning at 8 o’clock when they saw it,” he said.

By noon Monday, a tarp was covering the roof and the insurance company had been contacted about the damage.

Ott said it is not the first time a storm has damaged his business. Its roof also blew off in March 2013.

There is one big difference between that storm and the one Monday morning: This time, the roof blew off after the rain.

“Luckily the rain stopped before the wind blew it off or we would have been in a mess,” Ott said. “The last time this thing happened, there was over four inches of water in this building.

“We were luckier this time than we were last time.”

Operations at the funeral home are expected to continue as normal.

Mixon Warehousing Center on Five Chop Road had vinyl siding torn off one of its warehouses and a projectile punctured the administrative offices.

The hole in the roof led to some water damage, but the damage to the warehouse was strictly external, General Manager Ozzie Fogle said.

Down in Bowman, metal from the UFO Welcome Center went airborne during the height of the storm, owner Jody Pendarvis said.

Pendarvis said he was out at the center when the storm hit.

The wind “just whipped and whipped and whipped and it just wanted to tear my whole fence down and take a couple parts off of my UFO up there,” Pendarvis said, pointing to the top of the welcome center.

“The wind was very strong. It was throwing my tin all the way across the street. I had to run it down a lot,” he said.

“One of them was flying in the road,” Pendarvis said. “I had to pull it on over – a piece of tin. That sucker just wouldn’t hold down. I had to keep holding onto it. That is how mean this wind was.”

One of the doors from the top of the UFO ended up on the ground below.

Pendarvis said his first priority is to put the fence back up “so a lot of people won’t see what I am doing.”

“Kinda of top secret you know?” he said. “It is only between me and the aliens.”

Orangeburg was under a tornado warning around 3 a.m. Monday after weather radar indicated storm rotation. The storm quickly lost its severe nature and the tornado warning was cancelled.

There were no reports of a tornado touching down as of Monday afternoon.

National Weather Service Meteorologist Matt Gropp said there were only reports of minor structural damage in the area resulting from straight-line winds.

“We have not received any damage reports from the tornado warning we had out,” Gropp said. “It was a pretty potent front with gusts over 50 mph pretty much widespread.”

Orangeburg County Emergency Services Director Billy Staley said he drove around the area where the storm rotation was spotted but did not find any tornado damage.

According to the NWS, the peak wind gust at the Orangeburg Municipal Airport was 61 mph, recorded around 4:20 a.m. Winds reach tropical storm-force speeds at 39 mph.

The highest sustained winds at the airport were 33 mph during the same time period.

Calhoun County Emergency Management Division Director Dave Chojnacki said there were a number of trees down throughout the county as well as a number of weather-related car accidents.

He said there were no reported injuries or fatalities from the storm.

Power outages

Power outages occurred throughout the region.

Shortly before 8 a.m. Monday, there were about 335 Orangeburg Department of Public Utilities customers without power, according to the utility’s power outage map. About 249 of the customers were in the Cordova area.

The utility serves a total of 24,504 customers.

By day’s end, only 37 customers were without power.

Dominion Energy had 1,092 of its 13,353 Orangeburg County customers without power early Monday, along with 554 of its 3,214 Bamberg County customers and 260 of its 2,827 Calhoun County customers..

By the end of the day, a total of 104 Dominion customers in The T&D Region were without power.

About 343 Tri-County Electric Cooperative customers were without power in Calhoun and Orangeburg counties and 1,498 Edisto Electric customers were without power in both Orangeburg and Bamberg counties through mid-morning.

By day’s end, 346 Edisto customers were still without power and 32 Tri-County Electric customers were without power.

About 275 Aiken Electric Cooperative customers were without power in Orangeburg and Calhoun counties through mid-Monday morning. By day’s end, about 258 remained without power.

Rainfall was plentiful during the storm.

Here are some of the rainfall totals from the storm as recorded by weather observers across The T&D Region:

• St. Matthews: 3.69 inches

• Cope 3.37 inches

• Orangeburg: 3.02 inches

• Denmark: 2.93 inches

• Santee: 2.55 inches

• Holly Hill: 2.25 inches

• Elloree: 2.03 inches

• Springfield: 1.68 inches

• North: 1 inch

There was a flood warning in place for the North Fork of the Edisto River in Orangeburg. Flood stage is 8 feet. The river was forecast to crest at 8.2 feet on Monday.

The North Fork of the Edisto was the only river in The T&D Region with a flood warning in place.

Looking ahead

Temperatures this week will be more normal after a period of warm weather.

The high temperature on Tuesday will be in the upper 40s, but temperatures will rise to about 60 midweek before dropping into the 50s just in time for the weekend. Low temperatures will be in the upper 20s and 30s all week.

January is historically the coldest month of the year in Orangeburg.