On the night Tropical Storm Helene made landfall, Grace Freeman was sitting on her bed and praying the large tree in her backyard wouldn’t fall on her.
“I said, ‘Lord, don’t let no tree come through the house,'” Freeman recounted. “I couldn’t even move. If the tree would’ve came through my room, I would’ve been gone.”
The 71-year-old woman has lived in Nicholtown, a historically Black neighborhood in central Greenville, for her entire life. In all her time there, she said she has never experienced a storm like Helene.
It’s been nearly a month since Helene devastated Greenville and South Carolina’s Upstate on Sept. 27. So far, there have been 50 storm-related deaths reported in the state, with eight of those deaths reported in Greenville County.
In neighboring North Carolina, 80 people remain missing due to the storm. The storm has claimed 250 people along the Southeast, and that number could rise.
For three weeks after the storm, Freeman’s home had no power. The woman, who relies on an oxygen tank, had to stay with her niece in Piedmont.