Brailsford and her family “survived 17 days without electricity,” she said.
“They cut the power about 9 p.m. the night of the storm, and we were without for more than two weeks,” she said. Brailsford actually got home after the power had been cut from her job in Labor and Delivery at Clarendon Memorial Hospital.
She would be unable to get to work for days, she said.
“We visited with our next door neighbors until after the eye of the storm had passed over Charleston,” Brailsford said. “We thought, ‘Hmm, it’s not so bad; let’s go home.’”
But then the “fun” began, she said.
“It was wind, rain and strange sounds as trees snapped off, debris flew everywhere and we were huddled inside,” she said. “The next morning revealed a sight I never want to see again: To put it mildly, it looked like a war zone. Our doors were blocked and we could barely see the lake.”
Brailsford’s son, Jody, and his wife walked in from the highway using a chainsaw.
“He created a path to the lake so we could get water for the bathrooms,” Brailsford said. “Later that afternoon, our son Henry made his way to the house with a generator and gas, which was in great demand. The next day Buck’s sister and husband arrived from Aiken with jugs of water. Now we had food, water and neighbors to help us survive.”
Brailsford’s third son, Bucky, was a local fireman and helping out around the county.
“We were extremely grateful to have the power back on,” Brailsford said. “All of the neighbors gathered at our house for a party. One fellow stood by the light switches and turned them off and on for quite a while.”
