Although things are much improved, Sarah Brown still finds herself occasionally running across the effects of an April 10 storm that damaged her Petticoat Junction home.
"I found another casualty," she said of her recent discovery that one of her riding lawn mowers had been damaged in the storm.
For the most part, though, said Aiken County EMA director David Ruth, things are getting back to normal.
On the Augusta side, officials also say life is returning to normal, with just a few blue tarps remaining on roofs in the Bungalow Road area.
Petticoat Junction residents say there are still some loose tree limbs and some construction, but many roofs, including Ms. Brown's, have been repaired. A nearby convenience store also is up and running.
"Under the circumstances," Ms. Brown said, the situation is close to being back to normal. But she quickly added, "There's still a lot of cleaning up that needs to be done."
She said many trees have been removed from her property but some branches remain.
At a June 16 county council committee meeting, the issue of debris cleanup in the Petticoat Junction-Beech Island area once again came up as Aiken County officials approved up to $45,000 in incurred costs.
"While substantially complete, the cleanup of storm debris continues," the county agenda stated.
Officials say Aiken County suffered $3 million in property damage.
In South Carolina, the latest cost estimates from insurance claims are at more than $20 million, according to the South Carolina Insurance News Service.
That figure continues to increase as more claims roll in.
The cost of damage in Augusta was estimated at $1.4 million.
Georgia's initial statewide cost estimate from the storm, which spawned tornados in Burke and Richmond counties, was $100 million, according to the Insurance and Safety Fire Commissioner Office.
A message left with that of- fice seeking an updated total wasn't returned Friday afternoon.
Officials say they haven't heard of residents having any major problems with insurance claims.
"I have not heard one complaint at all about people filing claims," said Allison Dean Love of the South Carolina Insurance News Service.
Reach Preston Sparks at (803) 648-1395, ext. 110, or preston.sparks@augustachronicle.com.
Comments
I have ridden through the Petticoat Junction area a couple of times since the storm. One thing that I have noticed is the caring of neighbors. Neighbors helping neighbors, friends helping friends, just like the "good old days".
The residents of the area are to be commended for their caring attitude. Many of the residents are older and unable to do it all by themselves, but they don't have to, as their neighbors and families have come to their aid.
teapot, if you think Jackson and New Ellenton was bad -- you should go along Barnwell Highway in Allendale County. Cave Baptist Church was totally destroyed by a tornado just hours after the Augusta and Aiken County twisters.
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