Hurricane Ian cleanup on-going, bringing communities together

MOUNT PLEASANT, S.C. (WCBD) – The aftermath and clean up from Hurricane Ian is still going on across South Carolina as crews work to remove debris from neighborhoods in the area. The clean up is bringing people together to help out.

The downed trees remaining, not among the hundreds of downed trees already removed by state agencies, are likely left for property owners to take down at their own expense. The destruction left by Ian hit close to home for the News 2 family.

“It was scary; we were sitting right there in the kitchen window playing a game because the power had just gone out,” says former News 2 morning Anchor Brad Franko.

Franko says Hurricane Ian left a mark on his Mount Pleasant neighborhood and; his backyard.

“I caught it out of the corner of my eye, and it was just this big green blast of leaves and stuff, and I didn’t realize exactly what it was,” says Franko.

The blast of green leaves, his neighbor’s tree uprooted by the strong wind, created a path of destruction as it fell on his swingset and sunroom. The tree was not the only one to come crashing down in the area.

“We were sitting in the house probably right when it started getting nasty, there was one that fell,” says Franko. “Everybody knew that something had happened because it shook the ground.”

Several large trees down the road were wiped out. A neighbor behind Franko’s house wasn’t as lucky; they ended up with a tree falling through their bedroom roof. Franko says what happened next is what makes a community home.

“A lot of people just jumped on it, like the next day you just heard that hum of chainsaws and blowers and people getting their stuff out,” says Franko. “This just happened on Saturday, and we had an army of friends and neighbors who just hopped over the fence and brought chainsaws.”

The former morning anchor says he told you to check your insurance policy before every storm but says he may have overlooked that step.

“When you realize that two percent of your home’s value is the deductible, that’s a tough one to swallow,” says Franko. “I didn’t, and now I am going to see exactly what that’s about but, again fortunate that it wasn’t way worse.”

Mount Pleasant town crews are expected to make their way around neighborhoods this week to clean up debris and tree branches. Most areas are asking you to leave debris in a pile near the end of your driveway.