I talked to my brother.

[Are_grits_groceries]

He lives here in lower Florence County, SC. It's behind my maternal grandmama's house.

Well, he ain't going anywhere in the near future. The power lines are down everywhere. His power went out Wednesday afternoon. He has all the supplies he needs. In addition, he lives near two of our cousins who can always help him. His kittehs are fine.

He said this is a lot worse than Hugo and that was awful. He has never seen it like this. His yard is covered with broken tree limbs and the tops from trees. He said he had almost been hit 6 times by falling limbs. He doesn't go out much but he has gone to check on our cousins.

His house is ok. The windshield on his truck is broken. A tree fell across his truck. It was big enough to take out the windshield but the truck was generally ok. He said everybody he had heard from was ok. We have so many relatives that we may never find out about all of them. His power bill was due and he's trapped so I got his info and paid it online.

Added:He is going to have to be very careful when he can start to clean up that mess. He said when he looked up into the trees he could see a lot of limbs barely hanging on.

My cousin is going to take pictures and email them to me soon.

Way worse than Hugo......
Smh.....

[myrna minx]

1. All of my best to you, yours and all of the people who are suffering from this storm.

[Journeyman]

2. Good to hear. I read your post about him yesterday and hoped he'd weathered the storm fine. . .

If you don't mind, post a link here when you get your brother's photos up. Now that I know he's safe, I've an admittedly morbid curiosity to see what damage such a storm can do.

[Are_grits_groceries]

5. You and me both.

I can imagine the damage, but it will probably outdo my fertile mind.

[Warpy]

12. Ice storms are the worst

and it would be especially bad in SC, where mouse ear leaves are out on the early trees, adding to the surfaces ice can cling to.

It's always worse than you can imagine. If you're in contact with him, suggest he stay indoors until it's all pretty much melted. It's not just the falling branches that can hurt, the falling ice can, also. Some of it can get pretty heavy.

I'm glad he's managing to cope so far.

[shenmue]

3. Hope he stays warm

And you too.

[malaise]

4. Great news Grits

Glad he's OK despite the damage

[frazzled]

6. Hope he's okay

But worse than Hugo? Well, depends on where you were. If you'd been on one of the barrier islands, you had more than just broken windows and downed branches. You had total wipeout: nothing left; complete devastation.

But Florence County is inland, so Hugo probably was just a bad storm at the time.

[marions ghost]

7. Worse than Hugo

OMG that would be terrible...

Glad your brother and relatives are OK.

[G_j]

8. good news

though what a mess!

[raven mad]

9. Sending you good karma from the far north -

We're warming some here, but not much (18 below). I'm good karma-ing y'all every degree (it was 35 below yesterday).

Stay safe. And yes, grits ARE groceries!

[840high]

10. Best wishes to them.

[get the red out]

11. Thoughts for your family

I've been through a major ice storm, it's not pretty. I hope everyone remains ok.

[pipi_k]

13. Pretty much

What I heard from my son yesterday. He is in Summerville, SC.

Trees down everywhere, but thankfully not on the house or cars.

Power has been out nearly 36 hours...no heat, no way to cook.

They have a fireplace, but there is no firewood to be had anywhere, and the stores are empty of food. They're eating sandwiches and cereal.


I'm glad your brother is OK, and I really hope this is the end of bad winter storms in the south. They're just not equipped to handle them like we are up here in the northeast.

[Hekate]

14. All of you and yours take care, be safe, be warm....

[ladyVet]

15. Glad your brother is okay. Stay warm and stay safe, dude!

Up here in NC, we got a crap load of snow, and some freezing rain/sleet. Luckily, we didn't lose power. That happened several years ago, and we were out for six and a half days. We had to stay with my parents, because they had more room for the kerosene heater. Talk about stress!

[nadinbrzezinski]

16. But, but... let me give you a hug

I am sure your brother knows this, and so do you, tree limbs, also look out for electrical lines.

(Reason number 2000 why we need to bury them)

[marble falls]

17. It'll work to the best. Wonderful photo.