In the days after Hurricane Matthew, we told you stories of everyday folks who went above and beyond to help others in need, without thought of recognition or reward for themselves. Here, on the storm’s one-year anniversary, we catch up with these 10 unsung heroes:
David Vincent Young
After Hurricane Matthew, David Vincent Young, a Gullah chef for Ruby Lee’s South, drove around Hilton Head Island bringing Facebook live updates to residents.
David Vincent Young in a Facebook live steam during Hurricane Irma as he checked on areas known for flooding as well as taking requests from people who left Hilton Head Island. [Facebook screen image]
Trees covering the roads, no communication and a lingering feeling of isolation are what stick with him a year later.
Shortly after Matthew, Young said he started driving for Uber at nights, working on landscaping jobs, and offering his personal chef services to others to help increase his income. He also started a GoFundMe page.
He said his 16-year-old daughter, Imani May Young, has several tick-borne illnesses, and he needed more money to pay for a better doctor and other expenses.
“I pretty much work around the clock to help her see a doctor,” he said. “I’m doing whatever it takes to get her help. Whatever I can do, I’m going to do.”
Eventually, Young said he wants to have his own food truck featuring Gullah cuisine. But for now, most of his efforts are focused on his daughter.
Alex Kincaid: 843-706-8123, @alexkincaid22
Mitch Trupia
Hurricane Matthew doesn’t feel like it was a year ago to Bluffton resident Mitch Trupia, who at the time volunteered at a Red Cross shelter in Ridgeland.
Mitch Trupia. [File staff photo]
That’s because, he said, of his post-traumatic stress disorder and overall worsening health conditions as a result of the storm.
Trupia was a volunteer first responder at Ground Zero on Sept. 11, 2001. He said he developed several health issues, including cancer, because of all the dust he inhaled related to his work. He said doctors told him he was going to die five years ago.
Trupia said before Matthew hit, he had gotten the number of medications he takes down to two. That number spiked to 10 after Matthew had passed, he said.
“I overdid it,” he said. “It was a big mistake health-wise, but I don’t regret doing it.”
This month, Trupia plans to have lung testing to find out if he can go back into a lung transplant program.
Trupia said he has lingering memories of Matthew, including the fear he felt as hurricane winds roared past the shelter, mopping a flooded kitchen floor for hours, and “putting out fires” to keep things in order. But he also remembers the good — people helping people.
“It makes you proud to be American,” he said. “When times are hard, we come together as a family.”
Alex Kincaid: 843-706-8123, @alexkincaid22
Kim Sullivan
Kim Sullivan. [File staff photo]
Kim Sullivan, who used her phone and an iPad to shoot video during a bike ride across northern Beaufort County just hours after Hurricane Matthew tore through the Lowcountry, is no longer an amateur videographer.
In the year since the hurricane, Sullivan — a Newberry County native, artist and former educator — landed a job with South Carolina’s public broadcasting network SCETV.
The job offer came after she bumped into an SCETV crew while shooting post-storm videos in downtown Beaufort.
“It was just good timing,” Sullivan said. “Shooting the videos during Hurricane Matthew, I had no idea that would come into play” in terms of getting her job helping manage content and operations at SCETV’s Beaufort studios.
Lucas High: 843-706-8128, @IPBG_Lucas
Todd Weatherford
Chelsea and Todd Weatherford. [Joy Photography of Beaufort]
Born two months premature and just hours before Hurricane Matthew stormed into the Beaufort County area, local firefighter Todd Weatherford’s son, Anton, is now a happy and healthy 1-year-old.
Just 3 pounds, 11 ounces when he was born, Anton is now up to about 22 pounds and close to taking his first steps, said Weatherford, who is still with the Burton Fire District.
Weatherford, who last year rushed from Florence where his wife, Chelsea, gave birth back to Beaufort County to join first responders in hurricane recovery efforts, said the past year has been a busy but good one for his family.
The Weatherfords recently closed on a new house in the Shell Point area.
Lucas High: 843-706-8128, @IPBG_Lucas
Gene and Janice Davis
Gene and Janice Davis haven’t lost touch with the 88-year-old woman they took into their Hilton Head Island home during Hurricane Matthew — and then drove her 800 miles to be reunited with her family.
Janice and Gene Davis. [Jay Karr, staff photo]
Jo Scott was living alone in Hilton Head Plantation at the time. She was a client of Janice Davis, who worked for a company offering non-medical in-home care for seniors. Jo Scott’s children were unable to get her prior to Hurricane Matthew. After the storm, the Davis’ axed their way out of the driveway and loaded Scott into their 2009 Ford F-150 pickup for the drive to St. Louis. That’s where Scott now lives, but the families remain close.
“We spent the day with them a couple of weeks ago,” Gene said. “They were here to get the house ready to sell. Janice cooked a meal for them.”
Janice is now giving home care to a more personal “client” — a grandson born since the hurricane.
And Gene says his lasting memory is this: “Whenever a hurricane starts coming, the best case scenario is to prepare and get off the island.”
David Lauderdale: 843-706-8115, @ThatsLauderdale
Jason Davis
Jason and Caitlyn Davis of Jasper County had to put off their wedding because of Hurricane Matthew. He was working almost around the clock as a Palmetto Electric Cooperative lineman on that special day.
Jason Davis and his bride Caitlyn Sloss on their wedding day. [Anna Sanders Photography]
But they haven’t missed a beat since.
They got married a week later than planned. And then, after everyone had power, Jason and Caitlyn got to go on their honeymoon to the Tennessee mountains.
On Aug. 19, the light of their lives arrived — baby Willow.
And the young couple now has a new home in the Grays community, where Jason was reared.
Jason earned his five-year pin with Palmetto Electric, and he was back working long days after Tropical Storm Irma blew through. His lasting memory of Matthew is how Palmetto Electric and out-of-town utilities came together in a time of need, and “got a lot of work done” — wedding or no wedding.
David Lauderdale: 843-706-8115, @ThatsLauderdale
Camille Copeland
Camille Copeland, general manager of the Wine and Cheese, If You Please? on Hilton Head Island, didn’t realize that a Facebook group she created ahead of Hurricane Matthew would continue to be a source of information for the Lowcountry more than a year later.
Camille Copeland. [Submittted photo]
The group, “Hilton Head & Bluffton v/s Hurricane Matthew” , has continued to grow in members throughout the months since the storm. It had nearly 7,000 a month after the storm and is more than 8,000 strong a year later.
“I never expected it to blow up like it did,” Copeland said as she sat at the wine shop on the island’s south end. “I expected it to die off, but people kept using it.”
The sharing of information for contractors to fix houses or grumbling about insurance issues has continued throughout the year, Copeland said.
As the area prepared once again for a hurricane as Irma, which eventually hit Beaufort County as a tropical storm, formed in the Atlantic in September, people invested in the Lowcountry once again turned to the Facebook group, Copeland said.
“It got a second wind,” she said.
The group’s name was changed to represent the need, and “Hilton Head & Bluffton v/s Hurricane Irma & Matthew” was formed.
As for Copeland, “I have learned a lot about hurricanes,” she said.
Teresa Moss: 843-706-8152, @TeresaIPBG
Victor DelGuercio
Victor DelGuercio and two friends cut their way through tree-covered roads to return to Hilton Head Island shortly after Hurricane Matthew had passed. Armed with chainsaws, water, food and other essentials, their mission of helping others quickly began.
Victor DelGuercio live streaming from Hilton Head Island as Tropical Storm Irma and the subsequent storm surge were pushing onto Hilton Head. [Facebook screen image]
Via Facebook messages, the team checked on houses, often clearing trees in the process. The job continued for days — ones often lasting 12 hours.
A year after the storm, DelGuercio continues his job as a timeshare salesman for Marriott Vacation Club. He also still enjoys his days living in North Forest Beach, where he has resided for more than 30 years.
“My dog and I go to the beach almost every single day; we go for a run; we lay out,” he said.
DelGuercio said when Irma began forming as a hurricane in the Atlantic in September, his crew prepared with fuel and chainsaws once again.
Teresa Moss: 843-706-8152, @TeresaIPBG
Jeff Fulgham
Jeff Fulgham wants us all to learn to live without electricity — at least for a couple weeks at a time.
Staff Sgt. Jeff Fulgham. [submitted photo]
People struggling without power — and tree damage — are his enduring memories from Hurricane Matthew.
Fulgham, a Bluffton native, local historian and staff sergeant in the S.C. National Guard, mobilized for last year’s storm>, after which he and the 1221st Route Clearance Company cut their way into Beaufort County. The Graniteville-based unit was getting ready to do the same this year — in Charleston, this time — but was called off as Tropical Storm Irma’s track shifted away from the Lowcountry.
These days, Fulgham — who’s cleared IEDs overseas — is working on his second history book, this one about Dr. Henry Woodward, South Carolina’s first English settler.
And he’s already looking ahead to the next big storm, during which he hopes there’s a clear plan for a regional evacuation process — for Florida, Georgia and the Palmetto State.
“If we ever have a situation like Irma, (but) where it’s still heading for us,” he said, “we’re gonna have a problem evacuating with everyone trying to skirt the coast (and clogging I-95 and adjacent coastal routes).”
Wade Livingston: 843-706-8153, @WadeGLivingston
Ann Harrison
Another year, another evacuation — but Ann Harrison was gone just seven days this time, not 11.
Ann Harrison. [File staff photo]
Harrison, a nurse and administrator with The Cypress of Hilton Head, a retirement and assisted-living community, helped direct the evacuation of 360 people and 50 pets last year for Hurricane Matthew.
“We get on buses, wheelchair vans and ambulances, and we head to a safe place,” she said after her week-long evacuation ahead of Tropical Storm Irma. “It doesn’t really matter where we are, as long as we are together.”
While this year’s evacuation was easier, it was still tiring.
“We hope evacuations are not to become annual events for The Cypress, but each time we go, we make improvements,” she said. “If this continues, we’ll be ‘evacuation experts’ in no time!”
Wade Livingston: 843-706-8153, @WadeGLivingston
