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BRANCHVILLE - When hail began falling from the pitch-black sky to pound mightily upon her house amid rain squalls, Donna Fralix knew she had to begin preparing for the worst. This was more than a spring shower.
By the time she got blankets and pillows to her bathroom and came back to her bedroom door, it was too late to try to take anything to what she thought would be the safest place in her double-wide mobile home.
She could see her husband Rock's arm shaking as he tried to close their home's storm door. While the hail suddenly came to stop, the fierce wind was almost too much for her husband. Mrs. Fralix soon realized that if he had adhered to her screams to close the door, he would have been sucked up into what was a tornado dancing its way around their home.
Click here to listen to an audio clip of Donna Fralix describing the scene.
A nearly 10-foot-tall sycamore tree came crashing through the roof, missing her by inches. A branch from the tree hit her husband in the back, causing him to release his grip on the door and be sucked out onto the ground. A gun cabinet was the only thing that saved her and her husband of 28 years from being crushed to death, Mrs. Fralix said.
While it only took about a second for the twister to pass over, it felt like an eternity for Mrs. Fralix, who was left standing motionless and in disbelief amid a pile of dust, glass, boards and other debris in the middle of her demolished home.
"My husband had a gun cabinet in there that my father built him many years ago. I still feel today that gun cabinet is the reason my husband and me are here. It's a blessing in disguise," said Fralix, whose 21-year-old home was one of three homes completely destroyed in the town of Branchville during the severe storm system that blew through Orangeburg County Saturday.
"It actually sounded just like a train was getting ready to start up. It was just like a second when it went, 'Schwip!' That's just how it sounded. I really stood there in disbelief ... Did this happen to us?" said Fralix, who was at home Saturday with her husband and their beloved Chocolate Labrador Retriever, Gizmo.
"I know he knew that there was something happening. But, you never think of things like this. This is something that I see on TV out in Texas and Ohio -- never in the little town of Branchville," Fralix said.
She spent Tuesday afternoon hauling valued possessions from her home into a U-Haul truck with the help of her family and volunteers.
"We're trying to salvage what personal belongings we have. We have no home insurance. Our insurance company dropped us several years ago because our mobile home is so old that nobody wanted to insure it ... So, we're trying to salvage ... what we can continue to use after we try to rebuild our place," Fralix said.
She and her husband are the parents of three children, Rennie, 27, Chasity, 23 and Benjamin, 21. They are also the grandparents of two grandsons, Tanner, 7 and Carl, 6 months.
Fralix had lived on the property for 30 years, and her husband had lived on his family's land for 48 years.
"My husband was actually born on that corner (of Ott and Freedom Roads). His mom and dad's house sat right next door to us. This is actually my in-laws' property that was willed to my husband when they passed," she said, adding that she has faith they will rebuild with the continued support of the community.
"We're in for some hard times ahead, but I think maybe we can put something back here with the support of our family, friends, community and, hopefully, help that the state will be able to provide. My hopes are we're not going to be gone from here very long. My intentions are just to live here until the day I die," said Fralix, whose home survived Hurricane Hugo, which killed 82 people and left 56,000 homeless in 1989.
Gov. Mark Sanford toured Branchville Monday afternoon, saying the area easily appeared eligible for loans from the U.S. Small Business Administration, which includes funds for uninsured properties.
"I do want to say the mayor of Branchville (Tim Cooner) has been a very big inspiration for us. He's been talking with the lieutenant governor, our senators and to our governor. He brought the governor around here to see exactly how we are. We need help. The mayor told me, 'Don't give up. Some way or another, we'll get something situated,'" Fralix said. She said she was encouraged by the speedy assistance of the Greater Edisto Chapter of the American Red Cross, which provided them with an emergency stipend and other assistance.
Chapter volunteers manned a command post in the town's storm-ravaged downtown in the aftermath of the tornado.
"The Red Cross gave us a little card that we can get some food. As a matter of fact, they started coming around to let us know that they had a command post up there and that they could help us with food, clothes and other needs if any of our medications had gotten destroyed or lost," Fralix said.
"The Red Cross is really a good organization. They have a heart and don't judge people," she added. "If there's anything that you need that they can do for you, they do it."
Maintenance workers from Orangeburg-based N&H Enterprises, where Fralix has worked as a senior community manager for nearly 12 years, were helping the family clean up their property and remove items from the home Tuesday afternoon.
"I really appreciate them because we are a real big family at N&H," said Fralix, wiping tears away. "They deserve the credit because they have been with me through a lot of situations in my life. I thank God that they allowed the maintenance men to come and help give us a hand."
While hers and son's bedrooms survived the storm, the rest of Fralix's home was completely destroyed. She said she remains thankful for life and is looking forward to moving into her sister-in-law's home on the outskirts of Bowman until her family gets back on its feet.
"In all honesty, I think I'm a lot more blessed than some people," Fralix said. "We're just a family that's worked real hard and paid for what we have. We don't have any savings, trying to put our son through college. It's going to be a day-by-day thing," she said.
T&D Staff Writer Dionne Gleaton can be reached by e-mail at dgleaton@timesanddemocrat.com or by phone at 803-533-5534.