And we didn t have any power. She was lucky compared to others. Fallen trees trapped Tammy Bridges of Bessemer City inside her house for four hours. Rescuers had to cut a hole in the house to reach her. A pine tree fell on the bunk bed of two Ranlo children, Johnnie and Walter Jake Brown.
Rescuers couldn t lift the tree and had to cut it in sections to rescue the children.
Neither Bridges nor the Browns suffered serious injuries. They could not be reached for an update last week. But fear is not the only legacy of Hugo. The community under crisis pulled together, according to Toni Thomas, who worked for Red Cross then and is now a full-time volunteer. Looking back at Gracie in 1959 Thirty years before Hugo, Hurricane Gracie swept over Gaston County.