Seargent John Luero, of Augusta, takes a snack break as he waits by his truck for the word for the 122nd Engineer Battalion to move out.Photo by Ron Cockerille/Staff

Aiken County helps South Carolina deal with fallout from Hurricane Fran

Web-posted Sept. 5, 1996

 Other Hurricane stories
 Memories of Hugo
 Bob Smith's Hurricane Tracker

By Gregory Patterson and Brian Neill
South Carolina Bureau

AIKEN - Bulldozers moved out and horse trailers moved into Aiken County Thursday as the state prepared for Hurricane Fran.

About 400 South Carolina Army National Guard troops were deployed from seven armories in the western part of the state to St. George, in Dorchester County, about 40 miles from Charleston, ready to clear roads and help restore power on the coast.

Outside the Graniteville armory, home of Company C of the 122nd Engineering Battalion, Lt. Henry Howard leaned in a car window to kiss his wife and say goodbye to his two sons.

``I'm pulling out in five minutes. We're going to St. George. I'll call you from there,'' Lt. Howard said, then gestured to 8-year-old Darell. ``He's got a football game on Sunday and he needs cleats. Bye, champ.''

Rick Grant leads his horse Cisco to his stall at the North Augusta Hippodrome. Mr. Grant worked around the clock last night driving three loads of horses from Ravenel, S.C., to North Augusta after residents were forced to evacuate because of Hurricane Fran.Photo by Steve Shelton/Staff

It was the first time in Lt. Howard's career with the guard that his wife didn't know when he would be back.

``It's hard but it's necessary,'' Brenda Howard said.

The 122nd battalion, based in armories stretching from Barnwell to Saluda, was gone for 17 days in 1989 cleaning up after Hurricane Hugo.

``We'll be clearing roads with chain saws, motor scoops, 'dozers,'' Sgt. Ronny Allen said just before the first part of a 40-truck convoy pulled out from the Graniteville armory about 11 a.m. ``We've just been waiting here since 6 a.m. for the order to go.''

Company commander Capt. Bill DeBruhl said that even though the hurricane was no longer expected to hit Charleston, the battalion would spend the night near there and move up the coast Friday.

``In 1989, we said, `Wherever Hugo, we go,''' Capt. DeBruhl said.

Meanwhile, the Hippodrome in North Augusta became a refuge Thursday for four-legged evacuees from the coast.

Captain Bill DeBruhl, Commanding Officer of the 122nd Engineer Battalion, Company C, in Graniteville, gives his men a briefing before they are deployed to clear roads and help restore power on the coast .Photo by Ron Cockerille/Staff

Rick Grant took three trips and about 15 hours shuttling horses from his Ravenel home to North Augusta. In addition to their own five, Mr. Grant and his wife, Diane, brought 13 other horses from acquaintances and neighbors who didn't own horse trailers.

``It was kind of one of those, `Let's get out of Dodge and hope nothing happens and hope it's all there when we get back,'°'' Mrs. Grant said. ``With Hugo, (it was,) `It might be, it might not be, and it wasn't.'°''

Mrs. Grant recalled searching in the aftermath of Hurricane Hugo for someone with a gun to put down one of her horses. The strong winds had sent a tree-limb straight through its neck.

``We had horses that went through fences, we had trees fall on horses, we just had a lot of casualties,'' she said.

Zelma Covington of Yonges Island learned about the Hippodrome refuge through the same horse-owner network that brought the Grants, and brought along her four horses, five dogs and a ferret.

After getting off the telephone in the office, she snatched up a tiny yapping dog and beamed with pride.

``I got a hotel,'' she said, adding that yesterday's search for a room in the area had been fruitless. ``I came here thinking I was going to have to sleep in the car.''