COLUMBIA, S.C. — At a local state park, cleanup is underway even as campers and park rangers prepare for the next.
Strong winds and rain Saturday night interrupted Karen Johns' camping trip with her family.
“I mean you could just hear it was awful, just really loud,” Johns said. “It started out you could hear the thunder, you could see the lightning and then raining and then the rain just kept getting harder, and all of a sudden, the wind just picked up.”
Sesquicentennial State Park, which is located off Two Notch Road in Columbia, went turned from a tranquil getaway spot to a site of debris after the storm after trees and limbs fell and campers were left covered in downed branches.
“I didn’t even think about trees falling I mean," Johns said. "I didn’t even know what I was thinking. I was trying to get away from the window.”
Park staff spent much of Monday and Tuesday cleaning up the debris left behind from the storm.
John Wells is the park's manager. He says the park, widely known as "Sesqui," is receiving help with the cleanup from rangers across the state.
“What we’re doing is we’re trying to clear all the damaged trees that seem to be weakened by this previous storm and prepping for the next storm," Wells said. "We’re trying to get everything down so we don’t have any more problems in the future.”
Walking trails at the park are closed until they can clear away the debris to keep people safe, according to Wells.