Survivors of SC Lowcountry tornado tell of moments before ‘walls fell on top of us’
Nora Bright woke up Monday morning to a massive boom. It was dark and raining outside.
Bright rolled off her bed, ran into her 91-year-old aunt’s bedroom, but couldn’t find her.
“Nora,” she heard her aunt, Alberta Farmer, say. She pulled Farmer’s hand up and the two huddled in a closet.
Farmer’s home, off Lena Expressway in Hampton County, was in the path of a tornado that touched down early Monday. At least five people are confirmed dead following the storm.
Later Monday, Bright reflected.
She’s lucky she rolled off her bed when she did — there’s a fallen wall on it now.
She’s lucky she found her aunt and made it to the closet — there’s a couch in Farmer’s backyard and a mattress in a tree a few houses down.
As the sun came up Monday, Farmer’s street was entirely changed. Residents stood outside, waiting for help and assessing the damage. They greeted family and friends when they arrived.
While some wore face masks as a coronavirus precaution, others hugged and embraced. The power of touch, a connection and a way to communicate, seemed more important right now.
Further east in Nixville, Lorraine Roberts started the day looking at a heap of trees that lay where her house once stood.
Her husband, Kevin, was driving to work Monday morning when he turned around and went back home due to strong winds and rain.
When he got there, they both felt the house move, Roberts said.
“I felt it shift,” she said. “It sounded like a train running through the middle of the house. I was lying in bed trying to hold on, and Kevin was holding my legs when the walls fell on top of us.”
The pair were trapped inside their Leto Road home until first responders arrived.
Roberts said she believes she might have flown away if Kevin hadn’t been holding onto her. Had he not turned around on his way to work, he wouldn’t even have been home.
Most residents in Hampton County received an alert on their phones about the storm around 6 a.m., Hampton County emergency management director Susanne Peeples said.
Roberts said her dogs, Sug and Lady, were actually her first warning because they were barking and whining.
“They knew something was happening before it did,” she said of the pitbulls, who both survived the storm.
“When you get a warning,” she said, “take it to heart.”
This story was originally published April 13, 2020 at 2:15 PM.
