Jeanne spawns several twisters across Pee Dee
By JIM NEWMAN
Morning News
Tuesday, September 28, 2004

spacer A student at Delmae Heights Elementary School in Florence sits down with his classmates in the hallway of the school during severe weather on Monday.
A student at Delmae Heights Elementary School in Florence sits down with his classmates in the hallway of the school during severe weather on Monday.
John D. Russell (Morning News)

It was a major case of déjà vu for much of the Pee Dee and northeastern South Carolina on Monday as the remnants of Hurricane Jeanne spawned several tornadoes across the region - one causing at least four injuries, while other twisters damaged structures across many area counties.

Florence County emergency officials said one or more twisters touched down near Lake City around Truluck’s Vineyard just off McCutcheon Road where several debris fields were spotted. A barn in the area was demolished, several homes sustained various degrees of roof damage and some trees were downed.

Dusty Owens, director of the Florence County Emergency Management Department, said his team on the scene was still investigating whether a single tornado was responsible for the damage or if several had struck.

Neighboring Darlington County was not immune to Jeanne’s effects.

One tornado reportedly struck at Flinn’s Crossroads near the intersection of S.C. 151 and South Fourth Street just outside of Hartsville, where a tree had been knocked down onto one home, said Robbin Brock, director of the Darlington County Emergency Preparedness Agency.

One tornado formed to the east in Marion County about 2:30 p.m., striking near Pee Dee along Blue Brick Road, knocking down trees and power lines as well as damaging a home. Emergency officials also closely watched another severe storm cell capable of generating tornadoes later in the afternoon near Marion, but none were sighted.

Tornadoes also struck farther to the south in the town of Alcolu outside of Manning in Clarendon County, destroying three mobile homes and causing several injuries, said Cody Odom of Clarendon County Emergency Services.

No injuries were reported after another cyclone ripped through the area and collapsed the roof of a school building housing a Head Start program, Odom added.

It was just another day in the trenches for emergency planners and responders who have been through this drill many times in the past several weeks as one tropical tempest after another swept by or through South Carolina. Jeanne is the seventh storm of the 2004 hurricane season to bring inclement weather to the Palmetto State and the Pee Dee.

The storm also dumped heavy rainfall across the region, especially during the afternoon, as Jeanne’s swirling bands of showers and thunderstorms swept overhead.

Most areas reported about an inch or less of precipitation by mid-afternoon, but isolated heavier downpours that erupted over Florence, Darlington, Marion and Williamsburg counties resulted in about two inches of rainfall.

Heavy rain fell from one particular storm cell at a rate of more than two inches per hour as it drifted to the northwest past Florence, and many roadways across the county sustained minor flooding.

In some ways it was a repeat performance of past storms, but Owens said dealing with similar weather patterns time and time again doesn’t mean complacency is an option. “It’s never routine and you never want to get into that mode,” he said. “We’re just fortunate that the touchdowns in Florence County were relatively minor.”

Meanwhile, Jeanne continued to spiral over northeast Georgia on Monday afternoon where it was showing much of the Southeast that it had plenty of life left even though it had weakened to a tropical depression.

The National Weather Service issued flood warnings for most of the Pee Dee in anticipation of more severe weather and extended its tornado watch for the eastern two-thirds of the state, including all the counties of the Pee Dee, until 10 p.m. Monday.

Jeanne was projected to turn more toward the Northeast today as it begins to accelerate out of the region along the periphery of a stationary front draped across the Southeast.

Forecasters said there was still a good chance of showers and thunderstorms today, some of them capable of producing additional tornadoes, as the storm’s remnants moved across western South Carolina.

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