PETTICOAT JUNCTION --- Since his relatives' homes and business were damaged in a tornado April 10, Rickey Henley has tried to do what he can to help his aunts, uncles and cousins.
"It's going to be a couple weeks before we get everything straight," said Mr. Henley, dragging tree limbs to the side of U.S. Highway 278 and visibly tired from hours of work.
"You got to lend a hand -- help the community, 'cause one day, you never know, you may need it," he said.
Mr. Henley said the destroyed roof at the back of his family's convenience store, Kelly's Stop-N-Go, and all the fallen trees surrounding him were a sad sight.
"It'll never look the same again," he said.
-- Preston Sparks, South Carolina bureau chief
Frankie Dunbar had accepted losing her home, but she was not prepared Wednesday for what she found where her house once stood.
Her washer and dryer, microwave and other household items were stolen from the debris last week after an April 10 tornado destroyed her house in the 2500 block of Primrose Drive.
"The people said they knew me, but they didn't know me," she said.
Richmond County sheriff's deputies told Mrs. Dunbar that a man packed his truck with items from her home claiming that he was helping her.
The news was hard to bear as she and her 21-year-old daughter, Keturah, were still reeling from what they experienced just days earlier. Mrs. Dunbar was in the bathtub and her daughter, who is three months pregnant, was in her bedroom when the tornado hit without warning, she said.
"We couldn't hear anything. It just hit and my daughter got trapped in her room," she said. "All I could do was beg the Lord to not take my child and her unborn child."
Both Mrs. Dunbar and her daughter were unharmed. It will be six months before her house can be rebuilt, she said. The two will live at her husband's house until construction is completed.
Only one wall was still standing when Mrs. Dunbar last examined her house. Surviving the storm still amazes her, she said.
"I feel good. I can't complain about nothing," she said. "God brought us out of this."
-- Stephanie Toone, staff writer
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