Severe weather amid tornado warning destroys Horry County barn, forces road closure

Juanita Baxley and her son Danny watched in despair as clean-up crews shoveled away debris and downed trees from the front of their home along a rural stretch of Horry County.

“Devastation,” Baxley said, sniffling and holding back tears.

Behind her, a crushed barn and pieces of debris were strewn across her Juniper Bay Road property, where a possible tornado touched down around 1:30 p.m. on Jan. 4.

The National Weather Service is expected to survey the area about nine miles outside of Conway on Thursday to determine if a twister actually caused the damage.

Baxley said one of her sons and a family dog who were home at the time were uninjured.

The Baxleys own 342 acres that straddle Juniper Bay Road, and have no plans to leave.

“We’ll have to get generators properly to run the freezers,” she said.

A tornado watch was in affect across central Horry County through 5 p.m. on Jan. 4, and radar imagery picked up a severe thunderstorm with winds of up to 35 mph near the Baxley homestead.

Several trees in a wooded area across from the Baxley property were sheared off, with pieces of aluminum siding wrapped around branches about 10 feet off the ground.

The S.C. Highway Patrol closed a portion of Juniper Bay Road briefly Wednesday afternoon as workers continued to clear the area of debris.

Juanita and her son Danny were headed back from Florence when they spoke with a relative about the barn’s condition.

“I talked to my brother, he had told me what it looked like, but it’s still not real to see,” Danny said.

This story was originally published January 4, 2023 at 4:56 PM.