Column: Aiken residents come together to weather Helene's aftermath
Oct. 5—The hum of generators. The buzz of chainsaws.
But, mostly, silence. That's what I've been hearing.
It's been a strange, eerie week since we woke up Friday, Sept. 27, to find our community devastated by the effects of Tropical Storm Helene.
First, I'm thankful and grateful. We are alive, and our house and vehicles were not damaged. Seven of our fellow Aiken County residents were not as fortunate and were killed by falling trees or other events related to Helene.
As I surveyed my neighborhood in the midtown section of Aiken, I could see that many neighbors were not as fortunate. One friend had a tree smash three cars in his driveway. Others had trees land direct hits on their houses.
We have no power as of the deadline for this column. But we have friends that do, and family with a generator.
I've experienced three significant weather-related events in my 50-plus years in Aiken.
The big snowstorm of 1973 was an inconvenience as roads were hard to navigate. But as a young boy, it was fun to see the piles of fluffy stuff and get out and play in it.
Winter Storm Pax in 2014 produced lots of tree damage and made travel hazardous with icy conditions. I was living then in a neighborhood with underground utilities, and didn't experience any significant power outage. We hosted family and friends until their power was restored.
Now Helene, and I don't mind saying I was a little bit terrified from all the strange noises I heard the night the storm arrived. I went to the window a couple of times to look out, but couldn't see anything.
As the sun came up, I could see we lost the big hickory tree in our backyard. Fortunately, it fell away from the house. A neighbor's tree hit the fence that we share.
In the front, a giant limb from an oak tree split off and fell on the power pole and lines that go across my yard. But my wife's car, which was parked close by, was spared.
I made my way to the Northside, where the Aiken Standard office is located. We lost some trees, but had no power or internet. That was problematic as we needed to finish the pages for the weekend edition.
I pivoted to my parents' house with the generator, and was able to get online and direct our team from there.
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I went back to the paper and our folks figured out a way to get our parent company in Charleston to help finish the pages. As you might have seen, the weekend paper was not its usual self. We had to print the home and real estate section with Tuesday's paper.
But we got a paper out, and we filled our website and social media channels with as much info as we could on Helene.
The weekend brought the strange phenomenon of people lining up for hours to purchase gas. Saturday was my father's birthday, so we ventured to Blackville to get a home-cooked meal and we also discovered a gas station that was open.
Late Saturday afternoon I took my wife's car toward Interstate 20, and got lucky. The new 7-Eleven at Exit 22 was open, and it only took about 30 minutes before I was able to fill up.
This experience has taught me that we are very dependent on our technology. Many things were crippled by the lack of power and internet access. Modern gas pumps are connected to computers and can't complete a purchase without internet or 5G cell service.
That's what our new reporter, Carl Dawson, reported. He is going to cover education, but was thrust into storm coverage on his first day on the job.
Carl perhaps said it best when he said we are "prisoners of our own technology."
Still, I'm grateful that I have a flashlight on my cellphone. It's enabled me to shave, brush my teeth and do other things as I get ready to leave the house in dark conditions.
We've had to endure some "cold" showers because of the power outage, but we've made the best of the situation.
The nights have been filled with candles on the porch and streaming television shows on my wife's phone. Yes, I have missed live sports events, but it could be worse.
I've seen some folks lose their temper, both on the highway and at the gas station. But what I've seen a lot more of is people helping others. Our community has rallied to help those in need.
It will be months before we are back to normal. Stay safe, and be kind to others.
Thanks for reading.
