After close call with tornado, Johns Island neighborhood throws block party

JOHNS ISLAND, SC (WCSC) - A Johns Island neighborhood left in the dark after Friday's tornado made the best of a bad situation by having a block party.

Neighbors in Simmons Creek live only a few streets away from where the twister did the most damage.

"Last night we just kind of woke up and it was the craziest thing ever. Son slept through it and we kind of looked, we were like, is this really happening now," resident Thomas Stiglic said.

"Heard the rain real hard and then all of a sudden you heard the noise. Was that a tornado? Then it was gone," neighbor Bruce Saxman said.

With no electricity in their homes, these folks decided to make the best of it by having a block party.

"Everybody's got refrigerators and freezers and things like that, so we decided to go in the refrigerator, freezer will get warm, we'll get one grill," Stiglic said.

They cooked up some food for their families, realizing just a few streets away on Sonny Boy Lane some homes were destroyed or heavily damaged.

"We're absolutely blessed and thankful that we got limited damage," Stiglic said.

"I feel very lucky, blessed," Saxman added.

Stiglic figured out a way to shed some light on the situation by wearing his human headlight.

He and his neighbors don't mind being left in the dark for another night.

"For someone who has gone through Hurricane Hugo which was 17 days, this is absolutely nothing, so we're good to go," Stiglic said.

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