NWS surveys Monday’s storm damage in rural CSRA counties
EDGEFIELD, S.C. (WRDW/WAGT) - On Tuesday, officials from the National Weather Service went to Edgefield County to survey the damage from Monday’s storms.
The NWS has said the damager that occurred in McCormick and Edgefield Counties were a result of thunderstorm winds and not a tornado.
The wind caused the snapping and uprooting of trees, mainly near Highway 378 and Highway 283, according to the NWS.
First Alert Chief Meteorologist Riley Hale and Meteorologist Emily Acton met with John Quagliariello, a warning coordination meteorologist from the NWS, to learn more about the process.
Quagliariello says reporting storm damage in rural areas is “really critical to us, monitoring the radar and get warnings out for people downstream, but even after the event, we just don’t know.”
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The NWS says McCormick County through Saluda County was the focus on Tuesday.
“We did find some area that had a tree come down on a road and maybe some large branches from the storm yesterday, so it was fresh,” Quagliariello explains. “We are not finding a whole lot of damage right now. We are in a rural area so there could be damage we are just not having access.”
Another obstacle the NWS faced was damage from Hurricane Helene.
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“Actually, we were finding a lot of damage from Helene unfortunately. We know how many trees came down with Helene,” Quagliariello says. “It actually makes our job very difficult because there are trees down all along the wooded side and that is one of the things we look for during our surveys are trees and branches down.”
Quagliariello says the damage from Hurricane Helene is likely to be an obstacle for years.
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“When we are in rural areas like we are here we really rely on reports because we don’t have as good of an idea of what happens,” he explains. “If we have damage in a city, we will have blocked roads and will hear those type of reports. In rural areas we don’t get the information as much so it’s very hard for us to target our search for that damage.”
The best way to report damage, according to Quagliariello, is to send it through social media or email.
You can also send News 12 your damage and we will report to the meteorologist at the NWS.
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