WINNSBORO – Martha Wilkes doesn’t know exactly how long she was waiting for help on that day in March of 1984. But she remembers that it felt like forever.
Her house gone, scattered as debris across the neighboring countryside, she was in what remained of her basement with her two youngest sons. It was hailing, and it was cold. She didn’t know the storm’s broader impact – or why her husband hadn’t made it home yet.
But 40 years after the tornadoes that cut a swath of destruction across Fairfield County, the biggest thing that comes to her mind is gratitude.
“I don’t know how long that period of time was, not knowing if my husband and oldest son were alive or dead,” says Wilkes, 79, recalling the day of the storm as clearly as if it just happened.
“When they got home, nothing else mattered,” she says. “You can build houses back.”
It happened very quickly, she says. Weather warnings weren’t so common as they are today, and tornadoes weren’t something that anyone in Fairfield County at that time thought about, let alone expected to affect them.
But a tornado – or maybe two – left a path of destruction across the county on March 28, 1984. A news report from April 5 of that year describes what had happened a week earlier.
“The tornado, or tornadoes, crossed over the Broad River into Fairfield County a little after 5 p.m., first touching down at Dawkins, where several houses and St. Matthews Church were damaged,” reported the Herald-Independent, the local newspaper that covered Winnsboro at that time.
As witnesses described it, there appeared to be two tornadoes, which separated and then came back together in the area of the Wilkes home.
After wreaking damage and destruction on them and their neighbors, the newspaper reported, “The tornado seemed to take a left at the red light on the By-Pass, leaving in its wake desolation.”
It hit Richard Winn Academy hard, destroying the school, and wrecked several businesses before it went through the Smalltown area northeast of the school, where it killed or injured several people.
“The storm swept on through Fairfield County,” the newspaper reported, “exiting finally at the river, where a number of homes and cabins were hurt.”
In total, the storm left five people dead in the county and many others injured. Many survived by hiding in basements, sturdier parts of buildings, under furniture and other heavy objects, or by simply lying on the ground as the storm sent debris flying around them.
The effects of the path of terror it wrought on the survivors were everything from a generalized state of shock to acute mental breakdown.
The article also describes the effort to help victims of the storm, from the immediate rush to dig out those who may be trapped, to the intense effort to clear debris from the roads so people outside the disaster zone could get to their loved ones, to the donations that poured in to assist people who’d lost everything.
Wilkes also recalls how the community came together in the wake of the storm – and it left a lasting impression.
“It was a long time healing from that, getting back on our feet, but we were so blessed because we had friends and people to come out and help,” she says. “The blessings that came out of it were just the most wonderful thing, because people were so kind and good to us.”
According to the 1984 news account, “The county has experienced tornado damage before; three set down in the county last year. However, last Wednesday’s tornado activity in South Carolina and North Carolina has been declared the worst in the nation since 1974, and for Fairfield it was the worst since the late 1800s.”
It recounts the haphazardness that tornadoes are known for – like taking the roof off the home’s kitchen but leaving decorative plates hanging, untouched, on the wall.
“Our refrigerator was found two miles away, but a carton of eggs was in the yard not broken,” Wilkes says. “It’s strange. The winds from a tornado are very strange.”
Forty years later, she says, it’s still possible to get a conversation going by asking people where they were on the day of the tornado; everyone who was there still remembers. Her sons, she says, still post pictures and memories on social media every year around this time.
After the cleanup was complete, Wilkes says, her family chose not to rebuild. Instead, they bought a house in town – selected largely for its stout basement.
They went on to run a business in Winnsboro, Gaddy Furniture and Carpet, for some 20 years. Her husband, Jackie, served on the Winnsboro Town Council for 16 years and, now 82, remains active in the community.
She jokes that in the last 40 years she’s accumulated just as much clutter around the house as she had before the tornado.
Their three sons, Russell, Rod, and Randy, are all grown and have produced eight grandchildren – two of whom are now also grown and married.
“Life has happened, it really has – a lot of changes. But everything’s been very good,” Wilkes says of the 40 years they’ve lived since the storm. “We’ve had a lot of happy times.”
She says an image that remains vivid in her mind of their lives before the storm is of the dozen Yoshino cherry trees that lined the driveway.
They were in full bloom – a breathtaking spring sight – but the storm blew them over.
“We had some really good friends that went out there and worked and straightened those trees up, and they survived, and they’re surviving now,” Wilkes says. “We haven’t ridden out there [yet] this year, but they should be blooming soon.”
Send your photos and memories of the tornado to [email protected] to be used in the March 28, 2024 issue of The Voice of Fairfield.
Richard Winn Academy was heavily damaged in the ‘84 tornado. The following are memories from that day, shared in Richard Winn Alumni’s Facebook group.
Kay Gustafson Hensley: When Aimee Price O’Connor and I were on the way to meet our ride home that day, she realized she had left her jacket in the classroom. I told her don’t worry about it, you can get it tomorrow…..
Elisa Hare Hedgpath: There was one tree left behind the gym that had a piece of metal tied around it at the top like a finger with a reminder bow.
Gwen Black Harden: Our house across from the school was terribly damaged but still standing. The worst sight was the fright I saw on Sabie Cathcart’s face. He was running home to check on his family because the road was blocked. He was terrified that they had been hurt
Daniel Timms III: Will never forget mama laying on top of me Martin and John as it went over our house and yelling at daddy to get away from the window and stop watching.
Eric Robinson: We were supposed to have a tennis match in Columbia that day. We got to Columbia only to be told to go back home. Several of us had to wait on our rides so I decided to hit a tennis ball against the school wall. One of my balls hit one of the windows and I was worried to death I would break a window and Mr. Taylor would kill me. Little did I know.
Carla Lewis Moore: My dad was spending the night at Baptist hospital after a minor surgery. Paulette Lewis and I went home to check on things and got caught there when the tornado came through. After, we could not get back to Winnsboro and all the phone lines were out. It seemed like it took hours to get back to town be- cause there were detours. Somehow we were rerouted down 34 and saw all the terrible damage. I also remember how scary tornado watches/warnings were after that. It must have been shortly after 3/28/84 because we were still out of school. There was an alert. Caroline deVlaming and I took a radio and hid in a crawl space or some shelter under the old Thespian Hall (where she lived).
Allyson Lewis-Branham: We were coming back from Columbia and heard all the chatter over our truck’s CB. Mama and I had gone to an appointment and had no idea what happened until we overheard my Daddy and Papa frantically asking where we were. I was 4 and still remember the scare in their voices.
Martha Ladd: I was home with my 3 year old when it happened. I had just come inside from putting some fertilizer around the newly planted shrubs around my house. I remember going to my front storm door to watch the skies darken and the trees swaying and got a very eerie feeling. I was still clueless at that point that a tornado had touched down on the north end of town and made a huge path, destroying so much, including RWA. Billy gathered up his chainsaw, etc. and headed out to Blair to check on his mother. I remember he said he had to stop and cut trees across the road or take detours to get there. Thankfully his mother (and some of her neighbors) were hunkered down in her basement and no major damage was done to her home.
Amelia Ellison: I had a parent meeting scheduled for that night and because of storm I went early. Arrived at school to find no one. Only the bus through the wall and no roof on gym. Next thing I knew Robert Stidham and John mcneely shaking me and saying we needed to go help people in small town. They had been there on poach when it hit. Shortly police came and had us leave because of gas leak. An unbelievable feeling and sight. I had two rooms at school and neither got damaged. I left the window open in one and someone had broken the lab window with a football that day.
Toni Arnette Estes: I was at home with a fussy 9 month old. I remember looking out of the window thinking someone is getting a really bad storm. Then our boat which was attached to an anchor flipped end over end across an 18 acre pond.
Reagan Lewis Payseur: I was at Blanche Glenn’s house for a birthday party with Ashlee Spires Pegg and Casey Bonds Martin. We were eating hot dogs at the picnic table when the wind started to blow, so we went inside. I seem to remember Ashlee and I hiding in the bathroom, Blanche under a coffee table and Casey banging on the piano. Later that night, my family slept in the den while daddy took his equipment out to help with debris removal. My Aunt Anne from Columbia couldn’t get us by phone, so she drove to our house and knocked on our door. I seem to remember Mama greeting her at the door with a pistol.
Beth McNeely Hinson: I was in Columbia at the time, and walked out of the gym to see a strange GREEN sky. Later that night, Mama & Daddy called to tell me that John had been in a tornado at Richard Winn but was ok. It didn’t really hit me until 2 days later when I drove to the school and surrounding areas and saw the devastation.
Perry Anne Patrick Scott: I remember the GREEN so well
Jeff Kelly: That green gives me chills bc we all experienced it. Hasn’t happened since.
Jeff Kelly: Wow, me and my friend Pam Rowe, were at youth choir practice at my home church, Aimwell, Presbyterian, in Ridgeway, and mom was dropping Pam off at her house, the wind just stopped blowing and I remember the atmosphere was this weird green color and extremely quiet. My home was about 4 miles from downtown Ridgeway, so by the time mother and I got home it was all over. Diddy and grandma and Lee Dixon were in the houde, had the mattress in the hallway. Diddy says he looked out the front door window across the road, we didn’t live in town so no street, lol, and said he saw the funnel cloud touch down, from where my parents home is you can see things. Anyway he thinks that’s the same tornado that hit RWA bc of the timing of everything. Yeah for years I was scared of a tornado possibility. These stories are great.
