‘Thank God I am still here’: 5 tornadoes may have hit Orangeburg County

Branchville resident Ashley Pelzer was in her room, just working at her desk, on Tuesday evening.

She got off the phone and everything changed.

“I just heard a loud noise,” the Seacrest Lane resident said. “I knew it was raining and it was supposed to be a storm.

“At first it wasn’t bad.”

All of a sudden, she heard, “Whoo, whoo, whoo, whoo, whoo, whoo, whoop!”

“I was like, ‘What is that? What is that?’ ” she said. “I went to peek out the window and all I saw were trees and a big gust of wind. I have never in my life seen nothing like that. The trees were about to come through my window.”

Pelzer was crying, so she called her grandmother.

“I am like ‘Grandma, it is hitting us back here. What am I supposed, to do?’ ” she said.

The only thing she could think of doing was to get inside her bathtub.

When the storm was over, Pelzer walked out the front door of her mobile home and saw a tree scattered about.

“All I could do was cry and thank God I am still here,” she said. “I have been through a lot of things, but this here was the scariest. This could have picked my house up.”

Pelzer was not alone in her fears.

Her uncle, Thomas Williams, who lives across the street, said he had just finished making dinner when he looked outside the living room window and saw trees on the ground.

“I just ran and jumped into the tub and started praying,” Williams said. “The next thing I know, the whole house was shaking like it was about to come off the ground.”

“After a few minutes, it just stopped,” he said.

“Thank God I am still alive,” the 50-year-old Williams said. “It was the first time I have ever been in a tornado – I have seen Hurricane Hugo, but I ain’t never been in a tornado.”

The neighborhood was still without power early Wednesday afternoon, but Edisto Electric Cooperative crews were on the scene to restore power.

Seacrest Lane, which is located about five miles north of Branchville, was among the hardest-hit areas in Orangeburg County, according to County Emergency Services Director Billy Staley.

Staley estimates between eight or 12 structures in the county were damaged by the storms that rolled through Tuesday evening. He said the county was still assessing the damage.

National Weather Service storm survey crews plan to visit Orangeburg County on Thursday to determine if tornadoes hit the county

Staley said Wednesday that, “the damage is consistent with the track they were tracking the tornado warning.”

In addition to Seacrest Lane, Greywood Road, the Cattle Creek area and a Bowman solar farm also sustained damage. There were no known reports of storm fatalities or injuries.

The S.C. Department of Transportation was out Wednesday, cutting downed trees and clearing roads.

The Orangeburg County Fire District joined Emergency Services on Wednesday in surveying storm damage, primarily in the Branchville and Bowman areas. A S.C. Emergency Management official also joined the damage assessment survey.

Staley said he’s not seen anything yet that would qualify for Federal Emergency Management Agency disaster funds.

Despite the damage, Orangeburg County Administrator Harold Young said it the county was “blessed” because a lot of tornadoes spotted on radar did not touch down.

“The spots that it did come down are some of more rural areas, so we thank God that the spots did not see fit to drop in areas that are really heavily populated,” Young said.

Young said preliminary estimates are that there were five tornadoes in Orangeburg County on Tuesday.

“This is a whole lot better situation than we had in the last round of tornadoes we had several years ago,” Young said. In April 2020, two people died when their mobile home flipped over.

Staley reminded residents “to heed the warnings, watch the weather and have a plan.” Spring can bring severe weather and tornadoes to South Carolina.

Young praised the work of the Orangeburg County volunteer firefighters, first responders, Sheriff’s Office, Public Works and Emergency Medical Services for responding to the storms.

Young said the county, thanks to County Council, is able to use its own resources to respond rather than having to contract out services.

During Tuesday’s storms, Greywood Road resident Russell Byrd was at his house and heard “a lot wind, a lot of noise.”

He took shelter in his bathroom.

The first thing that went through his mind was: “Here we go again.”

“I had been through the last tornado back in ’08. It sounds just like a train,” he said.

Sharlene Williams, who lives on Freedom Road, about five miles north of Branchville, left her mobile home to go to her church in Branchville for shelter.

Upon returning to her house, Williams said she was surprised. Her property was cordoned off by caution tape due to electrical lines being down.

“It was devastating,” Williams said. “Lord, I have never seen nothing like this personally. There was a lot of wind blowing. It was a scary moment.”

Hilliary McAlhany, who lives across the street from Sharlene Williams, said she and her mother hid in the bathroom of their home when the storm hit.

“A gust of wind came,” McAlhany said. “It was like ‘Shoo’ coming through the windows. This is an old house.”

“We didn’t realize how bad it was until we walked and seen the tree that fell,” McAlhany said. “I was very concerned because this is an old house. If it was any worse, it would probably have torn the whole roof off, but luckily it was so fast. It probably lasted for five or six seconds and then it went away.”

The storm caused a tree to fall on her mother’s vehicle, busting out the rear window. The home’s roof caved in over the kitchen and a back room. The storm also blew out some of the house’s windows.

McAlhany’s neighbor’s carport was damaged and one of the windows of a vehicle under the structure was shattered.

Jasper Summers, who also lives across the street from McAlhany, was not home at the time of the storm. He was informed of the damage to his property shortly after 7 p.m.

The storm imploded some of the windows in his house as well as the garage door. Shingles were also ripped off the roof.

“The tornado came right through my area,” Summers said. “When I came home, I was very surprised. It could have been worse because a lot of these big trees could have fell the other way. They definitely could have reached the house.”

Summers’ 1979 Chevrolet truck was not so fortunate.

“I got my old truck running about two months ago,” Summers said. “It is running. I was just driving it after I fixed it. Now this happened to it.”

Cleaning up is going to be a lot of work, he said

“I have to get all of this stuff cut up and moved,” he said.

The Orangeburg Department of Public Utilities reported no significant power outages during the storms, noting most of the strong storms moved south of the utility’s electric service area.

Edisto Electric Cooperative on Wednesday morning reported 284 customers without power in Bamberg County and 34 customers without power in Orangeburg County.

The National Weather Service has confirmed that a storm that came out of Lexington County and went to Calhoun County was an EF1 tornado. An EF1 tornado has winds between 86-110 mph.

Calhoun County Emergency Services Director David Chojnacki said there were no reports of structural damage in the county.

Chojnacki said there were trees down on Savany Hunt Creek Road, Calhoun Hills Road, the frontage road near the Interstate 26 eastbound rest area, Old State Road and on Plantation Estates Lane

A preliminary survey showed the storm appeared to track from the Lexington-Calhoun County line on Savany Creek Road and made a line to Plantation Estates Lane. Chojnacki estimates the length of the damage was about three to four miles.

“There were clearly trees that were uprooted and trees that were snapped,” Chojnacki said. “A couple blocked the road. The Sandy Run Fire Department was out clearing the roads.”

As of Wednesday morning, Chojnacki said all the roads in Calhoun County were cleared and passable.

Chojnacki encouraged Calhoun County residents to sign up for CodeRED alerts by texting “calhounema” to the number 99411. He said the Code Red Alert system was used extensively during Tuesday’s storms. Those who can’t text can contact the Calhoun County Library at 803-874-3389.

Heavy rain fell during Tuesday’s storms.

About 1.16 inches of rain fell at the Orangeburg Municipal Airport.

Other rainfall totals from Tuesday’s storms provided by weather gauge volunteers include:

• 2.28 inches at a station about 7 miles west of Santee

• 2.16 inches at station about 5 miles east of North

• 1.91 inches at station two miles north of Denmark

• 1.76 inches at a station 2 miles east of Santee

• 1.46 inches at station 4 miles northeast of Cope

• 1.42 inches at a station about 4 miles east of Swansea

• 1.31 inches at station about 2 miles west of Elloree

• 1.20 inches at a station about 3 miles west of Holly Hill

By Thursday, a cold front will be pushing into the area, with possible thunderstorm development during the late morning or early afternoon. Dry air is expected to quickly move in.

The weekend and early next week are forecast to be sunny with a warming trend.