East side Spartanburg: Dupre Drive underwater, fallen trees make many streets inaccessible

Trees and power lines are down on the east side of Spartanburg, but for residents on Dupre Drive, that’s just the start of the trouble.

The nearby Lawsons Fork Creek has flooded, expanding well past the borders of the Cottonwood Trail and submerging Dupre Drive.

Ed and Kristen Griffin, Jennifer O’Shields, Amber Hodge, and the children of the three families were surveying the damage to their street Friday afternoon.

“We have water coming all the way up to our driveway, and it has flooded our road,” Ed Griffin said. “This side, the eastern side of our road, is just covered with fallen trees. We had to climb over trees all the way down the road to get to Fernwood Drive.”

“The water is probably halfway through the yard, and we live on a hill. So, there is no way to get out,” O’Shields said.

The families counted 15 trees down during their walk.

Either end of Dupre Drive is dry, they said, but in the areas that are covered, the water is deep and in spots, fast moving. There are also power lines down in the water.

In neighboring Converse Heights, many of the old oak trees that shade the historic neighborhood have fallen, blocking roads and, in a few cases, hitting homes.

Neighbors are working together to clear what trees they can to allow access in and out of the neighborhood.

Tim Kallgren had spent a few hours working with a handful of men to clear a large tree from an intersection on Otis Boulevard.

“There was only one way to get through the intersection that wasn't blocked, and all three other streets blocked,” Kallgren said. “There's still a bunch of bigger trees that are down that I don't think we're gonna fool with, but these we felt like we could handle.”

Farther down the street, Brian Naylor was rescheduling a vacation. The family’s home was hit by multiple trees this morning.

“Was sitting at home this morning, drinking coffee with my wife. We were packed, ready to go on a 30th anniversary out west and to see my family. Had a tree come down and hit a power line,” Naylor said. “I went upstairs to call Duke Energy and had a 100-foot, 50-year-old oak tree that decided it wanted to relocate. It split the top of my house; it almost hit me.”

After two fallen trees, Naylor thought it would be wise to move his car. No sooner than he had, “And that bad boy,” Naylor said, pointing to another large oak tree. “Came down and hit my neighbor’s car.”

A few hours later, another tree came down in the front yard, knocking a second tree into the house and causing a gas leak.

Kathryn Harvey, an Otis Boulevard resident who grew up in the neighborhood, said she’d never seen it damaged like this before.

“I remember there being tornado watches and hunkering down for those. I don't remember seeing the magnitude of this, the way things are right now,” Harvey said. “This is an old neighborhood, and the trees are as old as anything. And when they get waterlogged and the ground gets soaked, that's it.”

This article originally appeared on Herald-Journal: Hurricane Helene: East side residents see flooding, fallen trees