Twister touches down at Clemson

While Spartanburg County residents dealt with power outages, heavy rains and two tornado warnings Tuesday, it was nothing compared with the destruction in nearby locales.

A tornado spawned from the remnants of Tropical Storm Fay touched down Tuesday afternoon in Clemson, sending students scrambling for cover.

Trees and power lines were knocked down and several homes near campus were damaged, but no injuries were reported, authorities said.

A spotter reported the tornado in Clemson at 2:56 p.m., about 15 minutes after a tornado warning was issued, according to the National Weather Service. The worst of the damage happened near Clemson University's football stadium and not far from the downtown area, Pickens County Emergency Management Director Don Evett said.

"It's been raining all afternoon and the warnings were out for a while, so word had gotten out about the storms," Evett said.

The storm also knocked some trees on top of cars on Clemson's campus, university spokeswoman Robin Denny said.

A student on the third floor of the Hendrix Student Center on Clemson University campus told the Anderson Independent-Mail she saw dark gray clouds about 3:05 p.m., then a circular formation moving down toward the ground, but she did not see it touch down.

"There were pieces of debris in the cloud," said Caroline Stone, a Clemson student.

Patrick Neal, associate director of student media, also was in the Hendrix building, and said he saw a dark cloud within a light gray cloud. There was not a distinct funnel cloud, he said, but it appeared to be a tornado. He said he was looking to the east, toward the city of Clemson.

"You could see a lot of debris rotating on top of it," Neal said. "We had to get all of our students off the upper floor (of Hendrix), not once but twice this afternoon. Later, I saw a similar cloud in the same area."

The long warning time from the weather service allowed officials to sound emergency sirens on campus and send out urgent e-mails and text messages to students and faculty, Denny said.

Clemson Police Chief Jimmy Dixon reported numerous trees and large limbs down in the stadium area with some damage to several cars. In the Edgewood section of Clemson, which sits on a hill above the dam, many tree limbs had fallen down on roofs and cars.

The western half of South Carolina was under a tornado watch for much of Tuesday, and multiple warnings have been issued as bands of storms from the remnants of Tropical Storm Fay moved across South Carolina. The storms were expected to continue through Wednesday.

Spartanburg, Cherokee and Union counties saw tornado warnings issued Tuesday evening, but no reported touchdowns. Rain was heavy at times, with 1.91 inches reported at GSP by 10 p.m. Spartanburg County suffered as many as 1,700 power outages by late Tuesday evening.

School functions canceled

The severe weather conditions forced Spartanburg School District 6 to cancel scheduled open houses at four of its schools - Westview Elementary, Woodland Heights Elementary, L.E. Gable Middle School and Fairforest Middle School.

Spartanburg County Office of Emergency Management Director Doug Bryson said the recent drought actually was exacerbating some problems in the area. Bryson said trees, their roots weakened by drought, were toppling more easily than usual, and the ground, hardened by months without rain, was not soaking up water as much as it normally would.

Bryson also said he feared the potential for flooding would increase late Tuesday and today if the rains continued.

In Anderson County, the Emergency Management Agency reported calls of damage at Highway 187 and Mount Tabor Church Road, trees down in the Pendleton area and power lines down in the western area of the county, said Anita Donley, a spokeswoman for Anderson County Emergency Service Public Services Division.

Rodney Burdette, emergency management director for Oconee County, said a tornado was sighted at the junction of Oconee and Pickens counties, at the site of the old WestPoint Stevens plant. The site is now home to HighPointe Condominiums, which are in the construction phase. Trees were down in the area, and one building might have light damage, officials said.

Burdette said a tornado also was sighted in the Townville area, on the border of Oconee and Anderson counties. He didn't know of any damage there.

Fay's remnants also brought heavy rain to a large part of the state. Flash flood warnings were issued, and up to five inches of rain had fallen in Lancaster County, authorities said.

Nearly two inches fell Monday at the Columbia airport, with almost 1 1/2 inches falling in just over 30 minutes, according to the weather service.

The rains are welcome because much of the state remains in a serious drought.

The Anderson Independent-Mail and the Associated Press contributed to this article.