Storm travels through Spartanburg

“It was crazy,” said Eliza Williams, a freshman at Wofford College. Eliza was in the Rosalind Sallenger Richardson Center for the Arts when the storm first started picking up. Through the giant windows, she was able to see the sky darken and the wind pick up. 

At around 10:20 a.m., phones started buzzing. By 10:30 a.m., Campus Safety issued a TORNADO WARNING, telling everyone to take shelter, and alarms started sounding. Students moved from classes and dorms in order to take shelter in designated rooms, including  stairwells, bathrooms and even Mickel Chapel. Outside, what started out as a little rain and strong wind soon became a multi-stage disaster.

The Wofford College campus sustained little damage. The rest of Spartanburg was not as fortunate. Trees were knocked down, roads were closed off, lawns were splintered and as of Feb. 6, thousands of people were still without power. 

In places as close as Converse Heights, and as far as Applebee’s on E. Main St., the damage to property in Spartanburg is still widely unaccounted for. The storm itself spread all across the South from Alabama to Kentucky, causing destruction and flooding as it went. 

“I didn’t think this kind of thing was possible,” said JT Vannoy, a junior at Wofford College. Like many other students, JT has heard the alarms before, but he has never seen a storm of this magnitude. There are many people who are not quite aware how frequently tornadoes happen in the state. According to the South Carolina Emergency Management Division, the state is ranked 26 in terms of the number of tornadoes each year in the United States. 

On campus, everything was back to normal fairly quickly. “Everyone was so calm. It made the process much easier,” said Eliza. Along with the rest of the students, she sought  safety in a lower part of the Arts Center. By 11 a.m., classes were back on, and people were back in action.

“It’s just something out of the ordinary,” said Williams.