COLUMBIA, S.C. — A 61-year-old man is dead after a tree fell on him in Columbia during Thursday afternoon's severe storms.
The incident happened at a home on Columbia Avenue, which is just off River Drive.
The sister of the victim confirmed his identity as 61-year-old William George Lebby.
Paula Lebby said she had just walked inside her house in the when she heard an unfamiliar sound come from the backyard.
"I heard that funny sound, and I thought, 'Did he fall?'" she said. "When I came to the (back) door, I couldn't believe what I saw."
Her younger brother was in the backyard having a cigar and a snack. As strong winds hit the neighborhood, an oak tree snapped and landed on his chest.
"When it fell, it must have fallen and hit him and the walker caught it. It just tore up the walker."
She ran to her brother.
"I started screaming, yelling, hollering and running," she said. "The tree was in the way and I tried to pull him up. I had to run back in the house to get the telephone to try to call 911. It took me a while to get 911 because all the lines were busy."
Paula says she tried to revive Bill, but he was unresponsive.
"I was horrified. I could not believe it. I said, 'Oh God, no! No! No! Jesus, no! Why? Why?"
"It was scary. It was unbelievable."
She said the two had been at the home for the last four years, and he'd moved in because he had health issues. Her brother needed a walker to get around, and had just gotten the one that he was using Thursday.
"He could maneuver it better, so he could come out here and sit," she said. "We were sitting out here the other day."
Lebby's niece, Wanda, rushed to the house after hearing about her uncle.
She just spoken with him on the phone the night before. "He was the uncle that everybody loved to play on, chill with, have fun with, laugh."
"Freak accidents is something that's very unexpected. I wouldn't wish it on no one."
Three hours after the storm, family members stood on the backyard ramp holding onto memories of Uncle Bill.
"Just keep the Lebby family in prayer as we get through this together."
A wave of severe weather came through the area in the mid-afternoon, sparking winds in excess of 50 miles an hour throughout much of the Midlands. A reporting sensor on top of Williams-Brice Stadium recorded a wind gust of 79 miles an hour.
There are reports of downed trees and powerlines all across the region.
And with all those trees down, there are also power outages too. At the peak, there were 22,000 outages in Richland County, and 31,000 in Lexington County, and almost 12,000 outages in Orangeburg County.
