CHAPIN, S.C. — Neighbors in Night Harbor in Chapin were another group hit hard by the impacts of Tropical Storm Helene. Tree crews were out cleaning up this area all day Saturday.
News19 spoke with the Clark family about the damage they saw. Krisdee Clark, a mother of two, said several large trees fell in her yard, two trees damaging her bedroom window, the roof and her husband's car.
Krisdee retells what that moment was like when her daughter came to her bedroom around 5 a.m. Thursday night and was sitting on her mother's bed, telling her about a nightmare she just had.
"It sounded like a gunshot, and then all of a sudden, the entire back part of my glass in my bedroom where we were at, tree just landed on the roof and through the glass. Terrifying. I thought we were in the middle of a tornado, so I quickly said get in the bathroom. She and my son ran in the bathroom, and threw the dogs in the bathroom and of course, I'm sitting there wondering, what in the world and you just sort of are looking at everything and saying what do I do? Do I even try to clean this up," Krisdee said.
The Clark family said it was nothing they expected. They didn't think there would be this much damage from the storm.
"Glass all over the bed. My daughter cut her head. Glass all over me. It was just, it was insane. It was just everywhere. And you're not really expecting it. You're like, okay, something just came through. Then you see the branches and you're like, that was a tree," Krisdee said.
Right after this tree fell into the bedroom, Krisdee said she heard three cracks and then four more trees came barreling down onto her husband's car.
She said the next couple hours, her family stayed in the middle of the house, calling neighbors to check in and hooking up to their generators.
Within hours, tree crews came out to take the trees off the house Krisdee said. Since Friday morning, crews have been cleaning up her yard and removing fallen trees and limbs. She said they'll likely be helping out the rest of this week too.
"I think it was eye-opening about just the force of nature and what can occur. My son came running in. He thought there was an earthquake. He had felt the house shake because of it. So I really think the takeaway is just be prepared, teach your children where to go in cases like this cause it’s a powerful thing. The weather is a powerful thing and you just never know how it’s going to hit and what it’s going to do," Krisdee said.
The Clarks said they are thankful it wasn't worse and that their family had it easy compared to others dealing with much more in the aftermath of Helene.