‘God saw fit to make me safe’: Bamberg pulls together

BAMBERG, S.C. (WRDW/WAGT) - As cleanup from Tuesday’s tornado continues, there are stories of hope and inspiration.

Ellen Inabinet was outside cleaning up part of the mess in her yard Friday.

She’s thankful, though.

“It had to be God to save me, to save my life,” she said. “Never mind the materialistic part of it. God saw fit to make me safe until it was over.”

She walked us through the damage to her house, including broken windows and shingles.

She wasn’t even inside during the storm; she was in her car.

“Right here, and she said to me, ‘Move,’ and I said, ‘I can’t move. I can’t move. What do you want me to do?’ She said, ‘Mommy, you can’t stay there,’ and she ran and jumped in the other car. And I was sitting there like this with the motor running,” and that’s when a tree came down, barely missing her.

“It had to be the grace of God,” she said. “And again, I’m very thankful to be alive.”

She and so many others are holding each other close these days.

“The 20 years I’ve been here, this is the closest Bamberg County has really reached out to each other,” she said.

People stop by to help remove the debris.

“I see things in a whole different light now,” she said.

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The Red Cross has been in town, and is ready to offer help if there’s a second round of severe weather.

Also assisting has been a South Carolina Baptist Convention disaster relief group.

Dan Fogle, pastor at a Rosemary Baptist Church in Williston, is leading the local group, which spent all of Thursday running chainsaws and working to clear trees from residents’ homes and yards.

They will be back out on Saturday to continue providing this service as a mission to the community.

“The team is very ionate about helping others, especially our neighbors,” Marti Dickman said.

Two of the team , including Fogle, had total knee replacement surgery and are still in the recovery phase but are out running chainsaws and moving tree debris to help others.