“I went to work that day at the Highway Department in Orangeburg. We had a construction inspection scheduled out on Interstate 26, but had to cancel because of heavy traffic,” Geddings said of the day before the storm. “I went home that evening thinking that we might get some downed trees.”
But the wind and rain started after dark and continued to get stronger.
“Our power went out about 11 p.m., so I put up the bedroom window and went to sleep,” Geddings said. “My wife huddled in the hallway with the kids.”
Geddings slept through the whole storm, and was shocked at the world he woke up in that Friday.
“The pecan trees around our house were toppled over, blocking the road and covering the yard,” Geddings said. “I thought we might not get power back for a few days. It turned out to be 10.”
Geddings said the woods “were so torn up, I thought it would never look the same in my lifetime.”
“You really can’t tell now how bad it was, but I hope we never have another one like that,” he said. “One good thing I remember from the storm was everyone coming together. We had people coming up the road that morning after the storm, looking to see if they could help out and checking on others.”
Geddings said he and his family cooked on a two-burner Coleman stove, hauling water in five-gallon buckets from a nearby pond.
“(There was) a hand pump out there that only needed elbow grease to power, and I could get ice and gas in Orangeburg where I worked,” Geddings said.
