|
Replies: 29
| visibility 1
|
All-TigerNet [11064]
TigerPulse: 100%
Posts: 4988
Joined: 10/31/03
|
March 28, 1984. Where were you as tornadoes ripped across
15
15
Mar 28, 2023, 10:57 AM
|
|
the Carolinas?
I was living in Sampson County, NC. It was hot that day. Almost 90 degrees. Way too hot for March! I had a greenhouse facility at that time and recall trying to keep everything watered as we were busting at the seams with spring plants. We knew thunderstorms were coming later that evening and were looking forward to the cool down.
I was walking home to eat some dinner right at dark. The lightning was starting and it was like nothing I had seen before. The sky would look like it had "veins" running through it at times. I ate my dinner and decided to set up my camera on a tripod to try and capture some of the lightning on film. I had the camera set on a timer and was into my third or fourth shot when the sky lit up and I could see for miles. For just an instant, I saw what appeared to be 4-5 tornadoes miles away. I remember them being very skinny compared to those I had seen on TV. But, I convinced myself that it was my imagination. When the sky lit up that way again several minutes later, I saw two funnels. Then, I KNEW it was my imagination because where could the others have gone? I finished the roll of film and went back inside just when it started to rain. It never got rough as far as wind goes. Our power blinked a time or two. Instead of going back to the greenhouses to check on things (as I had planned) I gave thanks that the threat had passed, took a shower, and went to bed at the end of a hot, busy day.
The following morning I headed out to work and noticed various colors of insulation strewn about my yard and the roadside. Angry that some "idiot" had tried to haul trash without covering it, I walked over the the country store across about 200 yards away to ask the owner if he had seen the offender? I'll never forget his words. He said "Bo...that trash is from tornadoes". He pointed down the road..."Everything down there is gone!" I walked back home. Concerned. I knew people down there. I jumped in my truck and headed that way. It's like I rounded a corner and walked into a war zone. The mature trees were all sheared off with only jagged stumps remaining. If there was any height left on a tree trunk, it had roofing tin wrapped around it. Power lines were everywhere. I parked and started walking towards the rescue vehicles. I had that feeling of impending diarrhea and the urge to puke at the same time. There was a beautiful ranch brick house that belonged to a fellow church member. It had been lifted from the foundation and moved over about 20 feet. The mother of my friend was there to keep her grand daughter...a 15-month old baby. Both had been sucked through the chimney and were dead. They said the grandmother was still holding the baby and all of the flesh had been scraped away from the bones of her arms as she squeezed the baby tightly as they were pulled through the chimney. I felt helpless and didn't know what to do. I wanted to stay, but not be in the way. I started removing trash from the roadway as my excuse to stay around.
Later that morning reports started coming over the radio. More than 50 were dead or missing across the Carolinas. Scores injured. Back to my area, a turkey farm was destroyed. 20,000 turkeys were just "gone". No carcasses. No feathers. Nothing. A hog farm was hit. The owner estimated he had 500 full-grown hogs. I think he located 27 dead, injured, or surviving. They, too, we "gone".
A few weeks earlier, I had taken over another growers greenhouses down in Bladen County. I had a couple of day workers there but would leave my place around 10pm every other night to drive down and run fertilizer for 2-3 hours. My route there was hit so bad the National Guard was called in and a curfew was implemented. For the first couple of nights, I had a very difficult time getting to my plants. But after the regular guards got to recognize me, they let me through without delay. On the road that I traveled was a family of farmers. They lived on both sides of the road in a total of 11 houses. Seven of those houses were completely destroyed. Nine members of that faming family died. Nine! I remember riding through there each night or weekend afternoon and seeing the devastation. Cars on top of other cars. One house leveled...the one next to it untouched. I saw a 12-row rolling cultivator...a heavy chunk of metal that had no wind resistance whatsoever...had been picked up and dumped into a pond across a road.
We all pitched in and helped our neighbors clean up. There were no GoFundMe accounts to set up. There were no Facebook pictures to post. There was no pretty girls taking pictures of themselves holding drills or hammers with #helpingout or #rebuilding. There were no idiots dancing in front of the devastation to make a tiktok video. Just people helping people.
https://www.weather.gov/mhx/Mar281984EventReview#:~:text=The%20most%20destructive%20tornado%20outbreak,tornadoes%20and%207%20F2%20tornadoes.
|
|
|
|
 |
All-In [27344]
TigerPulse: 100%
Posts: 10122
Joined: 2/14/13
|
Re: March 28, 1984. Where were you as tornadoes ripped across
6
6
Mar 28, 2023, 11:08 AM
|
|
In the womb
|
|
|
|
|
|
Heisman Winner [134770]
TigerPulse: 100%
Posts: 26409
Joined: 9/18/12
|
Coming home from Rockingham. Baseball practice was
7
7
Mar 28, 2023, 11:13 AM
|
|
cancelled. I went home and shot basketball with my brothers not knowing what other parts of South Carolina were dealing with. We were at the dinner table and my daddy said, "that sounds like a tornado". We rushed outside and I didn't hear anything. We later heard Cash Community near Cheraw and the town of Bennetsville were hit. The Food Lion in Bennetsville was destroyed. We went to see the damage a couple of days later. I couldn't believe what I saw. It's amazing the strength of Mother Nature can unleash when she wants to.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Oculus Spirit [79491]
TigerPulse: 100%
Posts: 13103
Joined: 9/24/18
|
I was working for Helena Chemicals . . .
8
8
Mar 28, 2023, 11:17 AM
|
|
out of Laurinburg, NC at the time. I lived on the south side of town. Three of your Category 4 tornados converged on and decimated the small crossroads community of John’s Station on the east side of town.
Other than a few large limbs I went unscathed. The following day everyone with a chainsaw was in that community. The area sounded like an angry hornets nest abuzz. I can’t explain the devastation, but it was real. It took a week to remove enough debris for that community to begin functioning again.
When folks tell you a tornado sounds like a train rushing towards you . . . they are not lying. It was an eerie, unworldly sound I wish I could forget.
|
|
|
|
|
|
CU Guru [1299]
TigerPulse: 100%
Posts: 595
Joined: 11/21/04
|
In a dugout at Seven Oaks Park (Irmo)
4
Mar 28, 2023, 11:34 AM
|
|
We didn't have the tornadoes but one of worst T-Storms ever witnessed. Came up so fast (no phones to track in those days) it was mayhem. Kids screaming and crying just getting people in dugouts, concessions area, some ran to cars.
Remember the 18 wheeler that was literally lifted off of I 77 (Fairfield or Chester Co) and tossed into a ravine below.
|
|
|
|
|
|
110%er [7979]
TigerPulse: 100%
Posts: 4486
Joined: 1/12/06
|
Re: I was working for Helena Chemicals . . .
4
Mar 28, 2023, 12:06 PM
[ in reply to I was working for Helena Chemicals . . . ] |
|
I was a student at Clemson at the time. My parents lived in Cheraw. I remember hearing from them that evening that Cheraw was OK but Bennettsville just east on route 9 had been hit hard. Northwood Hills shopping center and the apartment complex right behind it was completely gone. The blacktop in the parking lot of the shopping center was completely gone, ripped up and carried away by what has been categorized as an F-4 tornado.
|
|
|
|
|
|
CU Medallion [51118]
TigerPulse: 100%
Posts: 17142
Joined: 5/21/08
|
I was driving home from work, headed toward a dark
5
5
Mar 28, 2023, 11:30 AM
|
|
cloud that I thought would be just ahead but drove the entire 23 miles to my house without reaching the cloud. After getting inside, a storm blew over covering my yard with so much hail that it looked like it had snowed. Luckily for me, the tornado didn't touch down until it got a few miles away from my house, but did lots of damage there.
|
|
|
|
|
|
CU Guru [1912]
TigerPulse: 100%
Posts: 707
Joined: 9/30/10
|
Re: March 28, 1984. Where were you as tornadoes ripped across
5
5
Mar 28, 2023, 11:33 AM
|
|
I was at Newberry College. My roommate and I were walking to the "mess" to eat supper. Suddenly hail, the size of an axe head began to fall. We ran inside, and within seconds, the windows in the dining area blew out. The thing I will never forget, we road around Newberry afterwards, where you could travel. We came upon a parts store that had been leveled. There was a woman outside in tears, screaming that she had left here purse inside. We later learned that 2 individuals had been inside and lost their lives,,, one was her husband! Between this incident, and Hugo, I pray I have seen all of the destuction of Gods nature I will have to see in my lifetime!
|
|
|
|
|
|
CU Medallion [51118]
TigerPulse: 100%
Posts: 17142
Joined: 5/21/08
|
This was the same one that went over my house without
2
Mar 28, 2023, 12:51 PM
|
|
touching down - lots of wind and hail like I had never seen before.
|
|
|
|
|
|
All-TigerNet [10906]
TigerPulse: 100%
Posts: 12989
Joined: 8/4/14
|
|
|
|
|
|
Freshman [10]
TigerPulse: 100%
Posts: 1
Joined: 3/29/23
|
Re: March 28, 1984. Where were you as tornadoes ripped across
Mar 29, 2023, 11:22 PM
[ in reply to Re: March 28, 1984. Where were you as tornadoes ripped across ] |
|
Okay walkertiger, I was also at Newberry College at the time, a freshman, and remember that day distinctly. Just finished an intramural softball game and we were heading back to to Brokaw when all heck broke loose. You’re not kidding about the size of the hail, I remember someone saved a hailstone in their mini fridge that was the size of a baseball. Anyway, we sprinted tithe roughly 100 hundred yards to the dorm with hail and debris flying all around us. The devastation afterward was impressive. I just remember how quickly it all happened- within a matter of minutes. If I recall correctly that specific tornado stayed on the ground for many, many miles. I believe the clock tower on the Newberry Opera House was stuck at 5:18 for many months afterwards.
That said I was also a student at MUSC, lived on James Island, when Hugo hit. Will NEVER forget event nor the scope of the devastation that followed. As bad the tornado was it paled in comparison to Hugo - I still think Hugo was a higher Cat 4 if not a 5 based on the damage. Anyway sounds like our paths have crossed a few times over the years. Small world.
|
|
|
|
|
|
CU Guru [1776]
TigerPulse: 100%
Posts: 2568
Joined: 3/15/99
|
I live in Newberry now. That day is still etched in
Mar 30, 2023, 6:09 AM
[ in reply to Re: March 28, 1984. Where were you as tornadoes ripped across ] |
|
the memory of so many people. Had you turned the other way on Main Street, you would have seen the destroyed dance studio with the dance team sheltering under the stairs. All were okay.
Do you come back to Newberry?
|
|
|
|
|
|
CU Guru [1366]
TigerPulse: 96%
Posts: 1398
Joined: 10/24/05
|
My dad was driving us on I-77 just north of Columbia on a
4
Mar 28, 2023, 11:35 AM
|
|
trip to Charleston when the tornados went through. We saw the aftermath of the one that crossed directly over the interstate. It was insane, like mother nature had just created a "road" in an instant. Trees were snapped off mid-trunk added to one of the craziest things I'd ever seen...Only to be rivaled by Hugo running smack-dab into Charleston when we were living there a few years later.
|
|
|
|
|
|
110%er [5489]
TigerPulse: 100%
Posts: 2517
Joined: 11/13/10
|
On the 4th floor in Richardson Hall at Winthrop
5
5
Mar 28, 2023, 11:51 AM
|
|
It got pretty bad in Rock Hill but nothing like Newberry and other parts of the state. Several guys from our floor left and headed home because their hometowns had significant damage and loss of life. I echo what you said about that day too. I came out of biology class about 2 o'clock and thinking "man it's hot and humid today."
|
|
|
|
|
|
All-In [38153]
TigerPulse: 100%
Posts: 9363
Joined: 6/13/19
|
Re: March 28, 1984. Where were you as tornadoes ripped across
3
Mar 28, 2023, 12:23 PM
|
|
I was a senior at Clemson living in Cedarwood apartments. I must have been having a large time, because I don't even remember this.
My bad...
|
|
|
|
|
|
Hall of Famer [22752]
TigerPulse: 100%
Posts: 11558
Joined: 10/12/14
|
Re: March 28, 1984. Where were you as tornadoes ripped across
2
Mar 28, 2023, 3:54 PM
|
|
Maybe we were at the same party? I lived in a basement apartment off campus that semester and have no recollection of these events either.
|
|
|
|
|
|
All-In [38153]
TigerPulse: 100%
Posts: 9363
Joined: 6/13/19
|
Re: March 28, 1984. Where were you as tornadoes ripped across
1
Mar 28, 2023, 4:53 PM
|
|
I LOVE ya man!!!...
If you remember some drunk saying that, it could have been me.
|
|
|
|
|
|
CU Guru [1893]
TigerPulse: 94%
Posts: 2673
Joined: 7/22/99
|
Re: March 28, 1984. Where were you as tornadoes ripped across
4
Mar 28, 2023, 12:26 PM
|
|
Walking home from work in Greenwood, SC. Barely made it.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Orange Blooded [4199]
TigerPulse: 100%
Posts: 3123
Joined: 4/15/05
|
Re: March 28, 1984. Where were you as tornadoes ripped across
3
Mar 28, 2023, 12:47 PM
|
|
I was working, whiskey business, traveling back roads to and from small towns. I was in the Lone Star area and it got almost as dark as night. Heavy winds with rain and hail so thick you couldn’t see. I had already found a place to pull over, was in a panel van that felt like it was going to become a kite at any minute. Later learned it was niot a tornado, they were further up in the area bordering NC. But a few days later I was working thru Bennettsville, Cheraw, Chesterfield and Pageland and saw plenty of damage. I feel so sorry for the people of Mississippi, they just lost everything. 🙏
|
|
|
|
|
|
Starter [377]
TigerPulse: 82%
Posts: 539
Joined: 1/12/12
|
Re: March 28, 1984. Where were you as tornadoes ripped across
3
Mar 28, 2023, 12:57 PM
|
|
I was 15 and was gone from school living in Bennettsville SC. I lived in a neighborhood right behind the Food Lion shopping center that was totally demolished. My dad had just left Food Lion and just drove up in the carport…it took three of us to close the door behind him because of all of the pressure…I remember seeing the sliding glass doors pulse like they were tide waves on a calm day…all needed up safe but we had 42 large pine trees down in our yard and on our house…only 3 pines made it…months to clean up but very thankful that we were safe!!!
|
|
|
|
|
|
Mascot [22]
TigerPulse: 92%
Posts: 16
Joined: 7/30/20
|
Re: March 28, 1984. Where were you as tornadoes ripped across
1
Mar 28, 2023, 3:46 PM
|
|
Did you go to school in B’ville? I graduated from there in 1985. -Jimmy McLain
|
|
|
|
|
|
Mascot [22]
TigerPulse: 92%
Posts: 16
Joined: 7/30/20
|
Re: March 28, 1984. Where were you as tornadoes ripped across
Mar 28, 2023, 3:57 PM
[ in reply to Re: March 28, 1984. Where were you as tornadoes ripped across ] |
|
I was 15 and was gone from school living in Bennettsville SC. I lived in a neighborhood right behind the Food Lion shopping center that was totally demolished. My dad had just left Food Lion and just drove up in the carport…it took three of us to close the door behind him because of all of the pressure…I remember seeing the sliding glass doors pulse like they were tide waves on a calm day…all needed up safe but we had 42 large pine trees down in our yard and on our house…only 3 pines made it…months to clean up but very thankful that we were safe!!!
|
|
|
|
|
|
Heisman Winner [111730]
TigerPulse: 100%
Posts: 73800
Joined: 9/10/03
|
I was learning to moonwalk
1
Mar 28, 2023, 1:11 PM
|
|
and winning break dancing competitions in the mean street of Philly. I could do "the worm", the head-spin, and that thing where you spin around on your back. If not for injury I likely would have turned pro and would not have to spend my days slumming it with you losers.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Mascot [22]
TigerPulse: 92%
Posts: 16
Joined: 7/30/20
|
Re: March 28, 1984. Where were you as tornadoes ripped across
3
Mar 28, 2023, 3:41 PM
|
|
I was living in Bennettsville at the time. We lived in Marlboro Court apartments- which were destroyed by the tornado. By the grace of God, the apartment building we were living in ( building 6 ) was not destroyed. My mother worked at the Roses that was in the food lion shopping center. I was getting ready to go to the food lion to pick up something for my mother. When I opened the door to leave, it was hailing & my mother told me to wait until it stopped before I went. Next it sounded like a freight train coming through the apartment complex. We watched out the bedroom window as some of the buildings fell apart. I drove a school bus at the time ( high school students could drive buses back then ) it was the only bus in the county that got destroyed. When it was all over,my mothers job was gone, we could no longer live in our apartment until it was repaired & my school bus was destroyed. we went across town and most people in bennettsville didn’t even know what happened. Crazy day for sure
|
|
|
|
|
|
Walk-On [111]
TigerPulse: 100%
Posts: 169
Joined: 1/1/03
|
I stayed home from Wednesday night church to do homework. I
2
Mar 28, 2023, 4:00 PM
|
|
had gotten a boom box for my 13th birthday 5 days earlier, and I used it to listen to the news when the power went out. I was alone, and I flipped the sofa upside down and got under it, but the tornado missed us. My mom, dad, brother, and sister were at First Baptist Church in Columbia. The car was a total loss from hail damage, so my dad got the insurance money and took us to Disney World that summer. We stayed in the Polynesian Resort. So I guess it wasn't all bad.
|
|
|
|
|
|
All-In [31315]
TigerPulse: 100%
Posts: 9128
Joined: 8/31/15
|
Re: March 28, 1984. Where were you as tornadoes ripped across
1
Mar 28, 2023, 5:00 PM
|
|
In Greenville at that time and do remember tornadoes but the only ones I am remembering went through Boiling Springs, Chesnee area. Do not believe these were related but the massive root balls on these huge trees that were uprooted was something I will never forget.
|
|
|
|
|
|
MVP [541]
TigerPulse: 100%
Posts: 314
Joined: 6/21/03
|
At Northwood shopping center in Bennettsville
1
Mar 29, 2023, 6:32 PM
|
|
.
|
|
|
|
|
|
All-TigerNet [10492]
TigerPulse: 100%
Posts: 7759
Joined: 12/5/15
|
Re: March 28, 1984. Where were you as tornadoes ripped across
Mar 29, 2023, 9:55 PM
|
|
Bad Hersveld, West Germany.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Orange Blooded [3290]
TigerPulse: 100%
Posts: 4049
Joined: 1/3/14
|
Re: March 28, 1984. Where were you as tornadoes ripped across
Mar 30, 2023, 6:16 AM
|
|
You could see the path of that storm for years as it had gone from Newberry through Winnsboro, Bennettsville to Greenville, NC. On every road it crossed there was a stretch from 1\2 mile to a mile wide stripped of trees!
|
|
|
|
|
|
110%er [9203]
TigerPulse: 100%
Posts: 2812
Joined: 2/23/23
|
Re: March 28, 1984. Where were you as tornadoes ripped across
Mar 30, 2023, 7:59 AM
|
|
In my momma’s belly in Charleston.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Replies: 29
| visibility 1
|
|
|
50
