Harmony Roof Damaged
A storm Wednesday, Aug. 19, brought heavy rains and strong winds to the area along Hwy 23 between Edgefield and Johnston (part of the Harmony Community). According to Emergency Management Direct Suzy Spurgeon, who spoke to the Advertiser the day following the storm, the storm did bring down trees and caused some power outages, but EMA received no calls regarding injuries or severe property damage. Described as a “localized event,” the storm knocked out the County’s amateur radio microwave link and caused the school system to “go down” for a time. It also knocked down several utility (phone and cable) lines on Hwy 23. Spurgeon said that there was no tornado associated with the storm; only “a lot of down pour and a microburst.” (The National Weather Services’s website, www.weather.gov, describes a microburst as being “a downdraft {sinking air} in a thunderstorm.” It states that microbursts can cause damage comparable to a tornado.) At the time of this reporting on Aug. 20, there were just 2 remaining power outages in the Aiken Electric coverage area and 1 outage in the Dominion area.
Tiffani Ireland