An EF2 tornado packing estimated peak winds of up to 115 mph tore through Newberry County this weekend, snapping and uprooting trees, damaging a home and flipping a camper trailer — yet somehow leaving no significant injuries in its wake.
The National Weather Service confirmed the twister, according to WMBF News, which reported that the storm hit a small, sparsely populated area bordering Fairfield County near the Broad River. Authorities said they received no 911 calls from the affected area, and the outlet's report notes there were no significant injuries from the weather event overall.
Accounts of exactly where the tornado touched down differ. South Carolina Public Radio described a short-lived EF2 that spun up in extreme eastern Newberry County near the Broad River, producing intense pine tree damage, while WACH placed the same EF2 along Old Blair Road in northern Newberry County, just north of Pomaria. FOX Carolina News reported separately that the National Weather Service confirmed the tornado touched down near Old Blair Road and Henderson Ferry Road in Newberry.
Trees Down, Power Poles Snapped
Per the same WMBF News account, damage included snapped and uprooted trees, minor damage to a home, and a camper trailer that was turned over. WACH's report described a similar scene — a small camper overturned and falling trees bringing down several power poles — though it attributed that damage to pine trees specifically.
The storm also dumped heavy rain across the county. Rainfall totals ended up being 5 to 7 inches depending on where residents lived in the county, the station's report notes. In a separate incident during the weather event, one person who drove into a flooded creek was rescued by Little Mountain Fire and Rescue and was not injured.
Cleanup Underway, Findings Still Preliminary
Newberry County public works crews moved quickly to clear trees and branches from county-maintained roads in the area, the article notes. The National Weather Service has cautioned that its tornado findings remain preliminary and are subject to change as more information is reviewed, according to WACH.
The Newberry tornado was one piece of a larger, unusual weather event. South Carolina Public Radio reported that the National Weather Service described the weekend storm system as a rare and complex severe-weather outbreak that struck South Carolina and southeast Georgia, and confirmed that two separate tornadoes also touched down in Barnwell County on Saturday. Across the state, no injuries or fatalities were reported from the tornadoes.
A Far Cry From 1984
Newberry has seen far worse from tornadoes before. According to the Newberry Observer, a tornado touched down in the west end of Newberry around 5:10 p.m. on March 24, 1984, kicking off an outbreak of 24 tornadoes ranging from F2 to F4 strength that killed 57 people across the Carolinas, including one fatality in Newberry. An F2 that tore through downtown Newberry that day carried winds up to 157 mph, and a second tornado, an F3 with winds up to 206 mph, struck the county closer to the Fairfield County line. Between the two, 254 houses were destroyed or damaged along with 86 businesses, 68 farm buildings, 45 manufactured homes and seven large public buildings, and 1,248 people were injured statewide, including 38 Newberry residents.
Measured against that history, this weekend's EF2 — with no reported injuries and damage limited to trees, a camper and a single home — marks a far less destructive chapter for a county that still remembers what a tornado outbreak can do.
