Tornadoes blew through Clemson and Pendleton Tuesday afternoon, while severe thunderstorms and another reported twister slashed the remainder of the western Upstate.

Trees were uprooted, limbs downed and several vehicles and mobile homes damaged, but there were no reported injuries from the storms.

Oconee, Pickens and Anderson counties were all hit by the remnants of tropical storm Fay, getting high winds along with much-needed rain. The severe thunderstorms spawned multiple tornadoes, according to spotters, who reported to Larry Lee of the National Weather Service (NWS) at Greenville-Spartanburg Airport.

The NWS reported that a tornado was spotted on the ground in Clemson at about 2:54 p.m. and was moving northeast at 27 miles per hour. Pickens County Emergency Services Director Don Evett said trees were reported down around North Clemson Avenue, College Avenue, near the Astro Theatre, Pine Street, Folger and Edgewood. Several brief power outages and traffic signal disruptions occurred.

No injuries were reported and Clemson Police Chief Jimmy Dixon said he and his officers were assessing streets that sustained damage.

“We’re only allowing residential traffic into neighborhoods behind College Avenue,” Dixon said.

Clemson University News Services Director Robin Denny said storm-related damage had occurred on campus in the vicinity of Littlejohn Coliseum.

“We had some trees down on Centennial Boulevard and the C-9 parking lot,” Denny said. “The trees fell on three to four cars there, and we’ve had no estimates on the damage yet.” In addition, a light pole was downed on the Clemson intramural field on Centennial Boulevard and Highway 93.

There were also limbs down near the intersection of Centennial Boulevard and Avenue of Champions. Two sets of traffic lights on Cherry Road were out for about an hour.

After viewing images of the storm online sometime between 1 p.m.-2 p.m., Clemson Aquaculture Facility Manager Scott Davis went outside his office off Perimeter Road.

“I went out and started looking, and the clouds started doing strange things, coming together to the east,” Davis said.

Davis sought shelter inside a feed cooler and closed the door.

“I came out after it got quiet, and the funnel was over the stadium,” he said.

The HighPointe project at the old WestPoint Stevens site across Lake Hartwell from Clemson was also hit by a tornado, construction workers on site say. Project manager Scott Puffen said no damage was done to the project itself.

Oconee County was under a tornado warning until 3:30 p.m. after a tornado was reported near Townville. There was also a report of a downed tree damaging a mobile home in Westminster.

Other reports of tornadoes came in from Pendleton and along Interstate 85 in Anderson County. Tornado warnings for Pickens and Anderson counties were lifted shortly after the swiftly moving storm passed through the area at 26 miles per hour, the NWS stated.

Two separate funnel clouds were spotted in Pendleton, according to Anderson County Emergency Services Director Taylor Jones. The first was sighted near Highway 187 and Pendleton High School about 2:43 p.m., with the second arriving in that area about 3 p.m. Jones said various Anderson County personnel, including those from the sheriff’s and coroner’s offices, called in reports of the storm.

Trees were downed in the area, with one person trapped inside their vehicle. Jones said no tornado-related injuries were reported from Pendleton.

“We had some reports of mobile homes having moderate to heavy damage from limbs and trees, and one (mobile home) was half blown off its foundation in the Sandy Springs area,” Jones said.

Students kept safe

Oconee County students spent about an hour Tuesday afternoon in the hallways of their elementary, middle and high schools bracing for a tornado that never came.

Oconee County school district officials sent out the first e-Alert at 2:24 p.m. for the southeastern portion of the county, affecting Fair-Oak Elementary, Oakway Intermediate and West-Oak High schools. However, the district extended the alert for the remaining Oconee schools after the weather service expanded its tornado warning for the rest of the county at 2:45 p.m.

Michael Thorsland, assistant superintendent of operational services for the Oconee district, said elementary, middle and high school students were moved from classrooms which contained windows to the hallways and seated in a tornado readiness position. The students remained in that position, facing an inside wall while covering their heads, until the tornado warning passed.

School district officials continued to track the storm by radar and dismissed students once the tornado was lifted less than an hour later.

However, the district kept Ravenel Elementary under a “Code Black,” the code used for tornado warnings, for several additional minutes as the severe weather made its way toward the Clemson area.

Julie Thompson, spokesman for the Pickens County school district, said elementary school buses were already on the road when the district received the tornado warning. All drivers were immediately alerted and continued attempting to deliver students safely to their homes while remaining cognizant of the situation.

“If there is imminent danger, they will follow procedures established for the situation,” Thompson said.

Thompson said middle and high school students in portable classrooms were moved into the school buildings and engaged in tornado drill mode. Buses were being held at the schools until the tornado threat had passed.

Following their schoolÂąs emergency protocol, Pendleton High students moved to the innermost part of the building, staying away from windows.

The good news is . . .

Tropical Storm Fay’s silver lining is rain. Keith Wilbank of the Coneross Wastewater Treatment Plant in Seneca said 2.61 inches of rain fell there Monday and Tuesday. The entire area remained under a flash flood warning until 7 p.m. An additional one to two inches of rainfall are expected through Wednesday.

Lake Hartwell received 1.29 inches of rainfall Tuesday alone, Billy Bergwell of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers at Hartwell said. Bergwell said that the storms have helped stabilize the lake levels, which had been dropping precipitously.

“Over the last two days, the decline has stopped at Lake Hartwell, in other words, instead of going down, it has flattened,” he said. “That’s the first thing that happens before we get into recovery. Whether or not we recover, that’s too soon to say.”

(Andrew Moore, Matt Wake and Greg Oliver are staff writers of the Daily Journal and Messenger.)