‘Salt of the earth’: Support strong for two Hampton County tornado victims from Mexico
Brothers Bill and Tony Nimmer say losing two workers in last week’s deadly tornado near Estill has been like losing family.
“They were just good people,” Bill Nimmer said. “They were just good, salt of the earth, great people.”
Alberto Hernandez, 41, and Rene Cruz Rodriguez, 25, worked for Nimmer Turf Farm Inc., the family-owned business based in Ridgeland that bills itself as the Southeast’s leading turf farm.
Hernandez and Rodriquez were from Mexico. They were in the Lowcountry on H-2A visas for temporary or seasonable agricultural workers who are here eight to 10 months a year.
They worked either harvesting sod or mowing on the approximate 1,000 acres the company plants in the vicinity of Estill, a small town on U.S. 321 about an hour north of Hilton Head Island.
Just before dawn on the Monday after Easter, a long and wide swath of rural Hampton County was blown apart by a tornado that killed five people and injured at least 60 others.
Authorities said winds reached speeds of up to 165 mph. It twisted steel, leveled brick homes and turned forests into bare sticks with no debris on the ground.
Four workers living in the same mobile home with Hernandez and Rodriquez survived it.
Their injuries included lacerations and broken bones, Bill Nimmer said. The last one got out of the hospital this Monday, and all are expected to make full recoveries. All are covered by worker’s compensation insurance, the Nimmers said.
The new, three-bedroom, two-bath mobile home they were living in was shredded, Bill Nimmer said.
“It’s a miracle any of them survived,” he said. “They had absolutely no time to react.”
People say it’s a miracle more than five people were not killed in the hard-hit Nixville area, where three members of the Breeland family were killed.
The Nimmers said they employ 80 or more seasonal workers, and that the H-2A program of the U.S. Labor Department is a godsend. Back home, competition is stiff for the jobs, the Nimmers said, and the program is tightly regulated.
“We see a remarkable work ethic,” Tony Nimmer said. “Their pride in the finished product is unbelievable. If the task is to mow a field, there won’t be one blade of grass out of place.”
Employers can request specific trained workers to come back year after year, and that’s how they build relationships and why this loss is so emotional and stressful, Tony Nimmer said.
Rene Rodriquez has worked here before. His survivors include his mother and girlfriend.
It was the first year here for the older Alberto Hernandez, who leaves a wife and children.
Someone set up a cross near the site of the wrecked mobile home.
A photo of it is being used on a GoFundMe web page set up by the Nimmer family, seeking donations for the families of Rodriquez and Hernandez. That will be in addition to support from the company, the Nimmers said.
It reflects the fact that the workers send at least 70% of their earnings home to support families and their own retirement, the Nimmers said.
“The loss of these men is heartbreaking for every member of our company and devastating to their families that they loved and supported,” the web page reads. “There has been tremendous outpouring of generosity and concern for the families of these two men.”
