85-year-old veteran, family narrowly escape collapsed roof following storm

MONCKS CORNER, S.C. (WCSC) - Clean up efforts are underway in a Moncks Corner neighborhood after a possible tornado.

It happened on Cedar Island in the area of Dennis Boulevard on Monday morning.

Berkeley County crews are surveying the damage and assisting with cleanup efforts.

They say at least 50 homes have been impacted across the county and there were no serious injuries.

The community is coming together including volunteers, businesses and county crews to pick up the debris and check on residents.

Multiple families narrowly escaped danger as the storm passed through.

In one case, 85-year-old Robert Mixon had just gotten out of bed moments before the roof collapsed where he was sleeping.

The veteran’s granddaughter Melanie Lanier says she is grateful everyone is alive. She says this house that her Popa built is a total loss.

“He’s the glue that holds us together and he’s just special,” Lanier said. “So whenever I walked in and saw the room that he was standing in, and he was pretty much the only thing standing in the room, I just knew that God was there.”

Mixon’s wife and daughter were also in the house and had just gone in the bathroom moments before they started feeling the impacts. They are all safe, but the roof collapsed in the other bedroom too.

“Here we are in this pandemic we are supposed to avoiding each other, but I can hug him and I’m incredibly grateful for that," Lanier said.

Volunteers with Bikers for Trump including Chris Cox are helping clean-up the Mixon’s yard and providing food and water to other workers and neighbors.

“These guys are lucky to be alive and that fact that they are out here today with a smile on their face, it’s just a testimony to the courage and tenacity of the Lowcountry,” Cox says.

Cox says volunteers will be there as long as help is needed.

“Everybody has been real nice to us, we really appreciate it,” Mixon said. “I’m just thankful to have the friends that I have. I’m blessed.”

This is his second home destroyed by weather, the first was during Hurricane Hugo.

“I’m just going to miss being in my home until we get it back together it’s going to take a while,” Mixson said.

Berkeley County citizens can report storm damage by filling out a form on the county website here.

“I think we need to look for God in these situations because he is here with us and that’s evident right here, everyone’s lives were spared," Lanier said.

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