Interviewee: sean Rayford
Interviewer: josh yates
Date: June 13, 2016
Accession#: FL 013
Part 1 Sound Recording Length: 46:53
Part 2 Sound Recording Length: 35:00
Summary
This oral history interview with Sean Rayford on June 13, 2016 includes discussion of his work as a freelance photographer, and as a photojournalist for Getty Images during the flood of 2015. He traveled around the state documenting the places and people affected by the flood. He describes watching motorists in the Forest Acres area of Columbia navigate flooding roads, following emergency crews to document efforts during the flood, and his first experience photographing a rescue during the flood. He discusses peoples’ reactions to his presence as a photojournalist, the last photos he took during aftermath of the flood, lasting impressions, and the coming together of communities during hardship.
Keywords
2015 Flood | Andrews, S.C. | Black River | Columbia, S.C. | Congaree River | Eastover, South Carolina | Forest Acres, South Carolina | Gervais St. Canal | Photojournalism | South Carolina Air National Guard
Transcript
Josh Yates: Alright, this is Josh Yates. I’m here with Sean Rayford. It is June 13, 2016, and it’s a little past 6:30pm. If you could, could you introduce yourself; age, location, and where you’re located at in South Carolina?
Sean Rayford: I am about to turn thirty-seven I believe, I could be wrong. (Laughter) But I live in West Columbia, it’s just over the bridge form Columbia proper it’s just about a mile and a half from the State House. And I ended up here in 1997, when I came to the University of South Carolina from Maryland instead of going to the University of Florida.
JY: And you’re a photographer?
SR: Yes, yes. I am, I would consider myself a freelance photo journalist and commercial photographer. Most of my work comes through photo journalism and then there’s some commercial work on the side, which tends to pay more of the bills.
JY: So one of the main reasons that we’re talking today is because you photographed a lot of the flood that happened back in October. Could you talk a little bit about how you wound up in that position to where you were —
SR: The, man I guess it was– I could be wrong on the dates– it was, it must’ve been the, the day before?… I’m assuming it doesn’t matter if I stop and look up a date.
JY: No, that’s fine, we’re just going to roll it and I’m just going to be patient with you.
SR: Let’s see. I was at a funeral for the cop that got shot… A funeral. And it was fuckin’ pouring. So it was a cop funeral, and it was pouring and that’s when I got the phone call to cover– like I was out in the rain. With that infamous Columbia, South Carolina home from – fuckin’, what street is that – Devine Street, that damn fuckin’ window kitchen that you can see in – 10/3, alright… So that’s October the third. If I dated it right. (laughter) Yeah, okay that’s October the fourth. Alright, this is how I remember all my life, I just like (laughter) here, what was I doing?
So the day before all the, the flooding happened I was shooting an assignment for The State newspaper, the local daily newspaper, and it was a funeral for a police officer who got shot and it had started, I guess it had rained all day that day and it was just, it was just pouring and, of course, it was outside and it was like being in a movie scene. And I got a phone call from my editor at Getty Images and, I think, yeah it was a phone call, and she was like, “So it looks like it’s about to rain a lot and there’s some chances of flooding in your area. Are you available to work tomorrow?” And I said, I said, “Sure.” You know, “It’s been raining all day, I’m out here in it right now, like–sounds good.” And from there I guess I shot for, like eight days straight because Columbia was kind of centered in, I guess as major damage areas I believe, like especially the ones that, like, happened immediately.
JY: So I think this could go a lot of different ways, but could you maybe start from the beginning and –
SR: Um-hum.
JY: – talk about some of your experiences early on and then kind of walk us through –
SR: Yeah.
JY: – what happened day by day?
SR: Man, this could go on forever…
JY: I know you have a ton of stories.
SR: Let me see what – (laughter) okay. …Alright, so on October fourth–the morning of, if I’ve dated my photo correctly – on the morning of October the fourth, I set my alarm, night before and I got up– I don’t know, probably– an hour before sunrise, knowing that I’d be going out and trying to make some photos. And my roommate works at a bar, and he came home about the time I was going out the door, and he said they had had problems finding the way back to the house because, you know, there were some unpassable roads. And he even said that some guy was holding on– I guess he just described it as–like ‘to dear life’ onto a stop sign in the middle of the water down near where Whaley’s Mill used to be, near the soccer stadium. And, and I got in my car and I drove down onto Beltline over by the high school and, the Richland Fashion Mall, and the water had come up over the road and there were a bunch of cars submerged, and there was a vehicle right in front of me and they just, like, kept going into the water. And I was like, ‘why are they doing that?!’… Like you could see there was other cars, like that are having problems. And, like I had stopped and I watched them and I was like, ‘well, you know, time to, time to get out and go.’– Or maybe I, I think I parked– yeah, I parked and I started to walk down and these people, like drove past me and, like went in and then, like instead of making a photo of that I was like, alright, like the first experience I have of this flood, like I can’t, like have people like die in front of me. (laughter) This was my first thought, so like I was just like, I’ll have time for photos I’m sure, like the sun is not even really up yet, it’s kind of difficult. And like, got behind and, like helped pushed– I wasn’t needed– they were kind of out by the time I got up there, but like. (laughter) So they got out of that.
And then I, I was listening to the scanner, the Fire Department scanner on an app for my phone through my stereo and I was, I was listening for boats because they would send boats out. And then I passed a boat over by Five Points and I just made a U-y and I followed the boat down to, I guess it’s the Hardee’s, the Gamecock Bi-Lo, and they were doing a rescue operation, a man and his two little boys. And when I arrived there I parked and I ran to, like a nearby business that had a, a porch that I could get out of the, the rain because it was raining pretty hard.
And the woman, the mother of these two boys and a police officer or Fire Department man had the same idea as I did, just to be able to get close, and get out of the torrential rains I guess you would say– I mean, it wasn’t that bad at that time, but it was still raining pretty hard. And she looked at me and, and she said, “Those are my babies!” And, and then requested that basically I take their pictures, you know, and it was like, kind of this like, kind of like odd, like, I don’t know, like, it wasn’t, like our social media world that we’re in, like oh well, like go ahead. Maybe somebody would have said that fifty years ago, too, but it was, it was just kind of odd, and that they, they had driven into– I don’t even know what road that is there– they’d driven to the road over by Gills Creek, that the creek had overflowed and they got stuck in a vehicle. And they had to send a boat out to fetch those people. And then they went back into the Hardee’s and, like dried them off and, like got them food and I sat there and edited, it was like, you know, like the first really, images, that I had really made that were really good.
And I was like, oh, it’s like, the sun had just come up, I was like, ‘I guess I’m going to start sending some images’. And so I edited a few, and then by the time I had my images edited and I was captioning them out, like the emergency people had left the family alone and I went over and I was like, “Hey, I’m Sean and I’m a photographer. I work with Getty and I was wondering if I could get you all’s names.” And so got their names and that ended up being on, I think that ended up being on the front page of The New York Times in the morning edition, which you know, is all about timing there. And I, and I got to meet (laughter) meet her, which was pretty cool. Should I continue on?
JY: Yeah, I mean, if you just want to walk us through some of the experiences, you can go through – that’s over where I live, yeah.
SR: Okay. And then I guess when, when we went in,– because everyone had the same idea– it was like after it was done, it was like, oh we’re going to get out of the rain and the Hardee’s was (laughter) the closest place. Or maybe it was Bojangles, it was Bojangles. Alright, sorry Bojangles. Bojangles, the lights were going on and off because, like you know, the storm was affecting (laughter) affecting that and it was, I guess it was pretty warm because all the – the AC stopped working and then all the windows were all fogging up and everyone was just like, you know, in there watching the, the Pay-Day Loan places when their windows exploded, and the Subway out there… That was a (laughter), I don’t know, that was an interesting moment because it was, it was like the, like the group, like oooohhhhhhh, like ahhhh, like ‘gasp’, like (laughter) oh! That was an interesting scenario…
JY: Did you see those places get trashed (unintelligible 12:10), well obviously…
SR: Yeah, yeah, that was, like when the windows blew out and there was, like three businesses right there; it was a Title Max and the green Pay-Day loan place, and Subway over near the Church’s Chicken (laughter).
JY: And is this Garners Ferry?
SR: Yes, that’s Garners Ferry, Title Max next to the Gamecock Bi-Lo. And then that’s over by, it’s Forest Drive over by, it was Gills Creek, over by the fabric store. I don’t know what to say about that… Maybe I followed this boat – no, this is–I kept hearing the same street over and over again on the scanner, and so I went to that street and when I got there basically what was going on, it was over by Lake Katherine/Forest Acres area, they weren’t, like rescue boats from any, like Fire Department or swift water teams or anything like that, they were just children, middle- age children of parents, middle age children going out to rescue their parents, who lived out by the lake and Gills Creek, and the lake had flooded and it kind of trapped them out there. Some of their homes were affected but they were, you know, basically these, you know, kind of like fairly well off, like you know, white dudes bringing out their fishing boats to, like go get mom and dad in the middle of this, like crazy-ass flood (laughter).
I mean, you know, it was like, the, like the hill was just like a boat ramp, like hill in the road just became a boat ramp and they were just launching fishing boats. And then one of them broke down and they had to tow the other boat back before they could ever go out and get that, so that was kind of a, a catastrophe. And then at this point it just became too difficult to work because my gear was so wet and, like the front lens would just like, I couldn’t keep, I didn’t have anything dry on me to clean off (laughter) the front end piece, so it was like, it was like going out and playing in the snow growing up on, like a snow day and, like going out for a few hours and, like then getting’ like all wet. And then, like coming in and like throwing everything in the dryer and, like, alright take a break, like, eat.
And then so I took a break, and that’s when the water was really coming up on the, at the bridge over the Congaree and people were – it had stopped raining, like it was still kind of drizzling there. That’s on Beltline, from where we started off… And the water was still, like at those apartments right there, what is that, that’s probably, like at least six feet high behind, in the apartments behind the Gamecock Bi-Lo. And a dude was fishing out there. This is the South Beltline area here, over by Tall Pines Drive, where the water was all the way up to the, the Tall Pines Drive street sign. Then I got out there. And my two roommates came out with me to kind of, like ‘oogle’, is that the right word? Does that make –
JY: Sure.
SR: – like spectate, too, because like I mentioned, I think, that it would, it would be easier for me if I didn’t drive, and if he wanted to drive he could do that. So we got out there to Tall Pines and there was a guy in a kayak out there kayaking by the street sign. It’s like –
JY: High level with the street sign, yeah.
SR: And that, that car was almost completely submerged. That’s Glenhaven. And there’s, this is the next day, so this should be the fifth. No, is this the fifth? Dammit. Yeah, this is the fifth now so this is the next day. And that’s Gills Creek, it’s kind of one of the shots that, not this specific shot but a shot from this location, was kind of seen pretty much everywhere. And that was, I guess on the 5th you started having people going back in the Columbia proper area around the Gills Creek area, and seeing how their homes were; and so, like right here you’ve got these, one homeowner and two of his friends in a three person kayak. Kayaking through, probably, three feet of water on his front porch. This is right next to Gills Creek. And I guess some time– I’m not sure how long before that this actually happened– supposedly I took this photo at noon on the fifth and it’s the canal breach and it’s, like access roadway and it’s, you can see straight to the, to the Gervais Street Bridge through there. And I guess–I don’t know what those are–are those telephone power lines? (laughter)
JY: I’m not sure what that is.
SR: The utility lines are, are in the middle of the water almost being swept away, but being held on by the lines. And then people started – I don’t know, what would you describe what they’re doing here?– Just cleaning out their house from just, you know, being, everything being damaged inside of it—from, so I think what this was is immediately, probably, friends and neighbors who weren’t affected immediately responded to their neighbors who were affected and they all pitched in basically and would just gut a house. And so right here you’re looking at couple-a dudes pulling out a washer or dryer out the front door of a house, and there’s a window next to the front door and a guy’s got clothes on and he’s got, looks like a bag of trash… and there was just, there’s a lamp in the front yard, and a stroller, and just pictures and just loads of, I don’t know, it looks like ten Christmases worth of trash. (laughter)
JY: Yeah, I always thought seeing all that stuff in front of yards it looked like (unintelligible 19:54) yard sale or something where the whole neighborhood was participating.
SR: It was, it was, yeah, it was just really odd. And like, the different piles of, like you know, trash to, like you know, ‘what we’re going to keep’ This is, I guess, I don’t know who this is, some type of swift water rescue crew, I don’t know, I imagine they’re probably local. This is still early on the fifth, and this is them going through with National Guard, and I think what’s probably happening here is they were just driving through these neighborhoods and going through with their boat, through the street and making sure that no one needs to get out of their house. Just making sure it’s available when they’re not – they’ve got the big, I don’t know what you call that, the military troop transport vehicle– that can kind of drive through a lot of, a lot of water. It was doing the same thing, just kind of doing, like playing taxi service.
This is Lake Katherine. This gentleman, Eric Van Zant, he, he was walking down the street there and I think Lake Katherine’s in the background right there, and he’s got a little John boat without the motor, and his, looks like just bags of trash but actually it’s his, his son’s and his granddaughter’s possessions including some stuffed animals for her and his– what do you say– he’s not, he’s more than knee deep, not quite waist deep.
JY: Mid-thigh?
SR: Yeah, but they were, they were taking, taking that stuff back to the, I guess, to the hotel that they were staying at if I, if I don’t, remember correctly. And this is a SUV that’s out in the middle–I believe–of Lake Katherine, and you can just only see its roof. And I took lots of photos of this because the, the vehicle remained in the same spot and later on, the more times I go out it gets more X’s on it from the rescue teams going out and checking on it and realizing that there’s no one in it. And that was a problem that they were having is rescue teams would go out to check on vehicles that were submerged and, and they’d get checked multiple times. And so like, by the, like the third or fourth team (laughter) came across it they made sure that they had marked it off–very reminiscent of what they were doing in New Orleans during Katrina–and they were doing the same thing to houses, too: on their front doors– they would just, you know, which– I can imagine, like, like how creepy, like the whole experience that that would’ve been, seeing that, after Katrina and seen, like I guess it had the markings for, like the number of dead and how, like, it’s like that wasn’t something that we experienced here in terms of, like – and there was several handfuls I believe.
But, and then here’s them attempting to prepare their, make their first attempt to repair the, the breach in the canal by dropping these rather large sandbags that they’re filling up to be transported into the, directly into the canal from the helicopters that they were bringing out. And it looked like a monumental feat and my roommate argued, adamantly, that there was no way that that was going to work (laughter). And I was like, “Ah man, they’re the experts!” Like “They must know what they’re doing!” Like, and so they started filling those up that night and then there’s the next morning… I’ve got a, you know, like —what is that: one, two, three, four – yeah that’ several hundred probably lined up and still looking at it like, like those dudes and a police officer, the park service ranger, like you can on the expression on their face they’re looking at it being like, ‘that’s not going to work’. Like (laughter) you know, like they’ve been working on this for, like, like, I don’t know, probably like sixteen hours filling up these bags now. Like, you know, and like I think they were –
JY: How heavy do you think those bags were?
SR: Oh, they’re, they could fit, like four on a semi.
JY: Oh, okay. Wow.
(laughter)
JY: Where were they getting dirt from, do you know?
SR: I’m not sure about the sand but there’s sand quarries out in Red Bank, I know that. And then also when they started getting the rocks– later on they realized they needed rocks– they went out to, to, there’s a, I think the railway over on Bluff Road they were bringing it in on railcars and just driving it straight up through town– not through town but on Assembly Street maybe. And then this should be the, October 6th and I wake up and I go immediately back to the canal to check that out. It became our regular stopping point for me, because it was very close to where I live and so I could sit there on my computer and edit some photos in the evening and eat and, like I could be present for, like if anything was going on. And this is sunrise on the 6th at the canal and that’s, you know.
Then I took a trip out towards Eastover, towards the Congaree Swamp and I make a turn down a, like a, a little smaller two-lane road and I come across this guy, Trey McMillan, who’s doing the same thing essentially as I am, is being curious. So he lives in the Eastover area, and he’s seeing basically what routes he still has available to him, because a lot of the road had been washed out by the various creeks, and streams, and stuff, in the Congaree floodplain. And he was leaning over the edge of this, like, it was kind of like, a [sic] overhanging street,– it was like a cliff. And there’s some, like, I don’t know, some animal that jumped up there and (laughter) he was trying to see what was there.
And then at some point I was driving down Garners Ferry Road, coming back to Columbia and I passed two rescue boat–two rescue teams with boats and a news crew from–not a local, local TV news crew but from, they were from Tennessee, because they were two Tennessee, like emergency rescue teams. I don’t know what these guys specifically were…. Whatever… And they were basically going out to the Eastover area, going from neighborhood to neighborhood, checking in with neighbors and seeing if everyone was alright and if there was anyone that, any of their neighbors that, you know, had heard needed help or went through any, like you know, experience, just to make sure they, nobody was still in any precarious scenario I guess. That’s my assumption. But I turned around and followed them for, like half an hour [laughter] before they stopped. And they stopped at one point, and they got out and they took out a map and they were trying to figure out, you know, where to go next. And I went up and asked for who was in charge and I was just like, “You guys mind if I follow along with wherever you’re going?” And so I followed around with them for a few hours and there’s–went from, you know, these small, small, you know, I don’t, kind of like, they kind of remind me of, like, they’re probably built in the ‘40s,–these like small ‘40s style homes in rural Eastover, South Carolina asking the neighbors, you know, if everybody’s alright.
And then on the way back to Columbia I stopped at…where was this?… Richland Northeast? Lower Richland, Lower Richland High School. They were on of the locations that were passing out water, and that was just like a steady stream of vehicles coming up. And it was like, they were giving out probably two to three cases of water to each car. It was, it was a constant stream for the time that I was there.
And then here I’m assuming that this is a gentleman by the name of Leon Youngblood. He was ripping up some flooring in a damaged Four [sic] Acres neighborhood, and I’m guessing that this is probably somebody that was hired. And so this is– there’s this vehicle that we saw earlier, now has multiple orange X’s on it.
JY: I think the water went down a little bit.
SR: Yeah, the water went down maybe about a foot and a half or something like that. And these kids were walking out onto this… pier, which the pier is submerged, the flooring of it, but it’s got a railing –which most piers typically don’t have–but they were walking out onto the pier there, all the way to the edge and it seemed so weird, because they were basically standing in the middle of Lake Katherine (laughter) on their pier. But you know, like knee, knee deep or whatever it was–and that was the first time I got wet the whole time– and the only time I got wet because I was, I got too close to the edge and I stepped in up to, like my right leg – oh because my boot! I could go–I could walk on that pier for a section with my boots on, but it dipped down right before, and it was too deep so it went in over my boot, and… Yeah, that’s been marked up–one, two, three, four, five— and obviously it’s got three doors open and a window down; somebody went up there and checked to make sure that no one was still stuck in the car in the middle of Lake Katherine. There’s a vehicle airing out with kind of like, it looks like, I guess, in a showroom, all its, its trunk and its hood up, and all the windows down, and the doors out. And the house with all its windows down, airing out in a Forest Acres neighborhood on October sixth. This is down on Gills Creek, it’s like a tow truck and then two cars that looked like they were abandoned. That’s South Beltline, and then a utility crew down there working on getting power back to people.
That’s the evening of October sixth, when they started dropping those bags of sand. I think that’s – yeah, they only, I think they only dropped a few that night and it was obvious I think at that point that it was going to take a lot more to close that hole up in that canal. And I believe the next day, on October 7th, they cancelled the football game– and I say the football game– it was a South Carolina Gamecock football game. I remember they cancelled that because I drove out on the highway to try to take a picture of the flooded field with the stadium in the background. And there’s the sewerage treatment plant, and water is threatening that. I, I don’t remember how that worked out to tell you the truth. You know, and I remember there was a dude on I-77 on the overpass that day– I forget who he was with, some official agency– and it looked like he was standing over the Congaree River with some type of a measuring device to see how high the water was at that point. And that was kind of troubling, but at the same time it wasn’t troubling to the point where, like it was to the point where it’s like, ‘get off the bridge!’ So I felt kind of good as long as he was still out there.
And now we’re to the point over here in Forest Acres on the seventh. And you’ve got basically what happened when people took out all their furniture in their front yard and, you know, were trying to salvage what they could. And the living rooms and dining rooms essentially started to function out in the front yard as this guy eats, looks like a bag of Fritos, as he helps to clean out, I believe, a neighbor’s house. It’s kind of an odd scene.
JY: Because it, it was pretty heavy for, like two days and then it seems like after that it was a lot of cleaning up.
SR: Yeah. It was kind of one of those things where, I mean, the timeline I don’t really, I mean, it was raining hard by mid-day – I want to say it rained hard probably for about twenty-four hours, is that – I could be wrong. But I want to say it rained really hard for about twenty-four hours (laughter), to the point where, like you know, like covering the funeral in the rain was just, I mean–I don’t want to say it was a miserable experience because it’s a funeral and of course it’s a miserable experience– and for me to, like say it was a ‘miserable experience’ for me to cover a funeral in the rain, it definitely was, like –
JY: Technical challenge.
SR: Yeah. Like it was, it was an issue to attempt to cover that in that much rain. So it came down (laughter) for… and this is just a family– looks like they’ve just got their entire front yard organized into trying to get, looks like kind of books dried out, that they’re trying to salvage; books, being probably like books, like you know, that you might be reading and then, like more personal book type items, maybe like some, like personal photo albums or something, I don’t know… Whatever they’re trying to save there. And she’s drinking a throw-back Mountain Dew (laughter). This guy is– is that broken–No, it’s not broken, it just looks like it’s really, like just got mucked up from the flood. It’s a picture of his, his mother. And this is, I guess, typically if you had lots of children, middle-aged children, going out and, like taking care of their parents’ places. You know, they have a lot more energy, and this guy was just clearing out his parents’ house and he’s got his portrait of his mother– it looks like probably from when she was in high school in ‘50s– is that what that looks like? Sixties…?
JY: If I had to guess I would say fifties.
SR: They’re still working on the [laughter] on, on trying to repair the canal. This is the evening or early – yeah, this is probably early evening October seventh–and there’s two Chinooks and then that other military helicopter flying around. The Chinooks were dropping the giant sandbags in, and then they had, they were starting to bring in more crews bringing in the sand, and they were also still assembling the sandbags there. And sandbags sounds like such a ridiculous thing to call it because it’s so huge. I mean, what do those things look like? They would – several thousand pounds?
JY: I mean, it’s really extremely large sandbags.
SR: Feel like several thousand, several tons –
JY: Yeah.
SR: – several ton sized sandbags. And then they had started bringing in a lot of earth-moving equipment that day, and they were pushing out rocks into the middle of the canal to kind of, like dam up the canal upstream. But unfortunately what that did was that just forced all that extra water that was coming down that canal into the wall upstream. And that immediately cut into the canal, so the canal started breaching again, for the second time, like one hundred yards up. So it was kind of creating, like, an island, and then it started threatening all the– more utility lines– and so they had to get all the utility crews out there and they’re out there on Jarvis Klapman Boulevard—Route Twelve, I believe. And there’s three utility crews there, working on the powerlines, trying to remove the lines so that they wouldn’t, I guess, ‘domino effect’ pull all the power or utility lines down.
And this is, the morning of October eighth, the Gills Creek floodplain area, South Beltline. There is a, one piece playground set on the, the roof of a home there. And there’s four people walking through it and I believe they lived at that, yeah they lived at that house where the playset is on their roof. And I asked them where that came from, and they said they had no idea how the playset got onto their roof. So it was from a neighbor I’m assuming… And this is, this is I guess, I don’t know how far along this is in the recovery process, this is probably, this is first day of a home where water got up to the ceiling, and the ceiling caved in. All of the furniture has been removed which is all out in the front yard at this point and people have shovels and trash bags, most of them masks and lights on their heads because there’s no power in these places, and they were basically–no not basically– they’re shoving up the ceiling with the carpet, if there’s carpet, because it’s just like, it waterlogged the ceiling, the ceiling collapsed on top of whatever the floor was there, and so if there was carpet then you, you know, like that’s just one of those things that, you know, you don’t really need over there.
And these people are volunteers who would just kind of show up in the neighborhoods and say, “Hey, we’ve got a group of twelve people, we have these tools, put us to work.” And there’s this couple–I shot their wedding– I ran into them out here. And then I ran into a football coach that I knew from River Bluff High School that morning and he, you know, we were like, he recognized me from photographing their football games because I went on, took a field trip, I went on an away game with him one time and rode the bus. And it was weird, some of the rooms, like you know, you’d get kind of deeper into rooms where there’s not going to be that much light, it becomes kind of dark in there, kind of creepy with, you know, everything destroyed.
And then I had kind of, like walked myself onto an island at that point, and I didn’t feel like going back through, like the high water that I came in to get to that area, and so I climbed over someone’s fence on that street to get back to my vehicle area, so to speak, without having to go through all the water. And what neighbors had done, they would set up, like folding ladders or ladders on their fences in their backyards, and so like, you would have a ladder up on each side so you’d go up and down, and it was like you’d look down the row and so there’d be, like each neighbor would have one up so you could get back and forth. And I did that and– man I don’t remember what street this was on– but this is South Beltline area. And I climbed over the fence, then walked through, you know, somebody’s backyard—kind of felt weird doing it– but like it was a good time to be curious, and you kind of had that– luxury I guess– to be curious when you’re doing a job out there, to be able to just wander around and, you know, be curious and find out what’s going on. And that’s, that was one of the, I guess, it’s one the attractions of it is, like for me as a photographer, is like, you get to be curious and find out for yourself, like so you don’t have any – you get to answer your own questions– like, ‘well I wonder what it’s like here?’ Like, like I don’t have to, like rely on anyone else, like kind of interpreting it and, you know, like.
So I climb over this fence through this kind of, like system of rigged ladders that the community has set up and there’s multiple SLED agents, and SLED cars, and Richland County Deputy Sheriffs out there. And I don’t know what’s going on, but it’s different than all the other, like emergency personnel situations that I’d come across the entire time. It was like, police force, respond, like something’s going on. And turned out, that they had caught some looters. And a dude who lived next door to the people they were trying to loot, saw two dudes pull up with a–it was like, it was kind of like, it might’ve been, like one of those RAV-4s–is that a vehicle, RAV-4?
JY: It’s like a Toyota SUV.
SR: Yeah, yeah, yeah… So they had, like a little SUV and a trailer and started moving some items around and the next door neighbor, you know, like, was like, “Who are you?” You know, (laughter) like, ‘You’re not my neighbor and you’ve got his stuff’. And so they called the police and they caught them, and like I, like I–they walked past me– the looters walked past me with the police and I, like– I don’t know, I don’t know if I– I might’ve taken a photo of it, or it might not have, like, I don’t know if I wimped out, and didn’t do it right at first; or maybe I didn’t have an angle for it, or wasn’t at the right place, and so I was just like, ‘alright’, like ‘they’re not going anywhere right away’. And then eventually the police officer opened up the door and there’s this little crack in the door where his, you could see through to the looter in the back seat, kind of like, this, this face talking to the cop, the cop’s probably, I don’t know what, the cop’s saying, like, ‘Man what are you doing?!’, because he was just like, you know, gazing back at the police officer, like, ‘yeah I got caught doing something really shitty’. Like, ‘I was, I was looting a home.’
JY: During a flood.
SR: During, yeah, in a natural disaster, looting… And then I, I talked to the guy who, who was a next door neighbor, and he was like, ‘Put them, put those men on the news! Yeah! Take their picture!’ (laughter). It was like, he was like, cheering me on, so it was cool because like it gave me a reason to go talk to them, and I got the story about what had happened. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have like, really known what– I would’ve had to have assumed a little bit more.
Wow, this is the next day, October ninth, and Andrews, South Carolina… This is my day off working for the wire agency, with Getty, and at this point they had flown down the staffer to the Low Country, and had been down there a few days. He was going to fly out the next day, on October 10th, so they were like, ‘take a day off.’ and I was like, ‘man, I’m going to go (laughter) I’m going to go continue being curious!’ Because like, I’m going to go, you know, what else am I gonn– if I’m sitting at home I’m going to go crazy–to be honest with you. Like, and so I got up with my friend, who I used to work with at New Brooklyn Tavern– was a bartender at a music club– and we took his van and his kayak and we just went exploring down– and followed the water as it made its way down towards the coast and the Georgetown area.
And we got down to Andrews where along the Black River, this is, we found these two dudes, well not– this whole family that lived along this, sorry, whole neighborhood– who had been cut off, and water was probably in some of their homes up to, like six feet. And these two gentlemen, Davey and Donovan, they were young dudes in their twenties or thirties probably and –just good ole’ boys in Andrews–and they were coming in– like I said, the street would turn into a boat ramp– and we were doing the same thing, I was listening to the, the scanner, the Fire Department scanner. And I kept hearing the same street over and over again. And so I just, we found a way to get to this street and it took forever, cause the only way to get to the street was go in through these, like gravel roads in like, South Carolina Low Country, right, just like it’s just pine forest area basically. And so it’s just like these small kind of roads out, you know, kind of in the middle of nowhere, and it would be like, ‘Man, are we really on the right track?’ But like, you’re following the Google map and like, it’s like, ’well, as long as no, like water cuts us off’; that was how you had to get there, we finally come up to, like where, you know… kept hearing that there was issues and there was this family, this whole neighborhood, who had their bass fishing boats out, and they were just literally, you know, like boating up and down their street.
In, I don’t know, probably up to eight to ten feet of water, and Davey and Donovan took us out on their boat, me and my buddy, John, and showed us their neighborhood; and that’s his parents’ house and, I mean, I’m– I don’t know if that’s a ten-foot basketball rim, but if that’s a ten foot basketball rim, the water’s twelve feet right there– so (laughter)–like it was definitely high and I was, it was the Black River just kind of like– and it came real slow. I knew it was coming, you know, this is the, October the ninth now, so this is days removed from the flood, the sun’s out. Like these guys are, are – I think it was Donovan said, it’s like, he remarked at one point, it’s like, “We’re just kind of doing what we normally do, except we’re riding around in our boat, drinking beer, smoking cigarettes, except we’re just putting in at the end of our driveway.” (Laughter) And they took us out and they had–oh he had this BB gun with the Confederate Flag sticker on the butt of it, and he was shooting up all the snakes, because all the, all the animals were coming out, –because they were all flooded, too–and so he shot, like in like a half an hour period, he shot at, like, five or six snakes. (laughter)
JY: Water moccasins or–?
SR: I have no idea. But like, anytime he would see one it would just, immediately, it was, he would stop and he would, you know, stand up in his (laughter) in his beach trunks (laughter)… And then– this is some, like flood ingenuity–this is Davey who, their task, like basically when they took us out, they said that they’d been doing tasks the whole day; like just getting stuff done that needed to be done and, like they had spray paint that they were marking on the street where they were basically measuring how high the water was coming up, and how far along on the street it was coming. And his house at the time was, like three inches from the door. His neighbor was probably waist high– or over waist high. And then, this is another neighbor and he has to swim– so it’s over his head– and he just, he just jumped out of the boat, into this water coming from the Black River– which gets its name for a reason– and he was retrieving a boat trailer that is submerged in someone’s front yard; because they needed another boat trailer and they want to get it out of the water.
So he dives down into the water in the front yard of his neighbor’s house there – oh! that’s him standing on the porch of his neighbor’s house– which I guess that’s a mobile home. But yeah, he dives down in the water, and comes back out with the end of the trailer, and then another buddy dives into the water with him, and they attach it to a boat in the water, and then turn the engine on, and then boat out of their flooded street and up the street, like a backwards boat ramp [laughter]. And you know, it’s just like doing, you know, doing whatever needed to be done… (laughter)
Then this is the next day– Is this the next day? Oh, God. This is October tenth. This is, this is the Andrews area the morning of– what did I just say the day was?
JY: Tenth…?
SR: Yeah, so I’m, I’m back working for the wire service, Getty, again today. And basically I just started driving back where I had been the day before… –Man, I think I missed a day of stuff… I missed a whole day of photos here… That’s interesting.– That’s my first book edit. Yeah, I need to go back. Maybe it’s not in order, who cares? You can piece it together.
So now I’m down here in the Brown’s Ferry community, which is in Georgetown County, which is more towards the coast from Andrews, because I had just kind of kept – I was like, alright next day, keep moving down, follow the water. And I came across two rescue teams from Tennessee who were replacing two other rescue teams from out of state, you know, after they’d been down serving the communities who were affected by the flood, and that was two boat teams from, I want to say Tennessee. And I ran across them, they were stopped and I just got out, I was like, “Hey, I’m going to follow you guys.” And I followed them to the Georgetown County, kind of like staging grounds where they– I don’t know, what would you call that–command center, like Georgetown County command center. So I got really lucky because I found, like the staging grounds for, like the National Guard efforts to get to this community of Brown’s Ferry in Georgetown County which had been cut off by, by the overflowing Black River again. And basically there was, like three hundred people who couldn’t get out of their community.
Some homes were affected, some homes weren’t, and there’s the main stretch right there…This is, yeah the teams were from Franklin County, Tennessee and Brentwood Fire & Rescue. This is their first call that they’re going to, and I ride out with them, they take one of those big, giant National Guard transport vehicles, and they put one of those big res – not big– those little red rescue boats in the back of that. And then they took another of the same vehicle, and then they had loaded up the two rescue teams and then I jumped in with them. And we went out to their first call since, like coming from Tennessee and it was like my, like we don’t really know each other very well, and by the end of the day we get to know each other a little bit more. And I’m like, holding their cigarettes, and their sunglasses as they were going out, and going on little missions, and they’re going out to try to find–basically there’s this older man, older gentleman, who I guess probably maybe doesn’t have a cell phone– this is, you know, kind of like poor neighborhood, and no one’s kind of heard from him… And they basically needed someone to out and check and he’s been cut off, his house has been cut off and it’s like a, they get in their boat for, like, and go around a corner and it’s like, I don’t know, it’s like a good like, I don’t know–probably like 200 or 300 yards– and it’s out of sight; and on the way there they were like, one of the guys– what did he say– he said, “So what do we do if we get out there and the dude’s dead?” And the other dude’s like, “Don’t touch it. Just call it in and leave.” Like, like we’re not getting caught up in that. Like basically, like don’t do anything, just like, we’re here to, like help the living people, so we need to avoid that.
And so you could see that like, you know, like they didn’t know what they were getting into. You know, they had, you know, no idea what they were going to come across. And we got out there and so I watch them come back out, come down and then there’s, like five guys that go, there’s like ten people in the crew. So the guys return that went out in the boat and they’re like, “He was sitting in his living room watching TV. He says he’s fine.” (laughter) And, and it was funny, and they were asking around, they were trying to find out the man’s name, and no one knew his name, ‘because everyone in the community just knew him as ‘Old Man’ (laughter). And his name, his last name ended up being the same name as the, the street, so… (laughter)
And that’s the main passage that was blocked. And basically it became, like a shuttle service for the folks who were cut off. The National Guard would just kind of shuttle them in and out; people that needed to go the grocery store, just wanted to get out of their neighborhood–or if you were, you know, if your house needed, you know, if you couldn’t live in your house. They– somebody left two puppies inside of a fence in the community, and just kind of like left their house, and like, so these Georgetown– I think the Georgetown Fire Department dude–they went and took them out, and like they were on the phone with the owner the whole time basically. I think, I think that they just got somebody else, like people, those people called around and they found (unintelligible 1:00:34), like. But there (laughter) these two little puppies on this, this like–I don’t know how to – the military carrier with everyone’s luggage– and it’s like, you know, everybody knows each other, you know, they’re all neighbors.
Then it started, rained only, you know, like, what is this six or seven days into, like after the main rain, like it just (laughter) it started thunderstorming out of nowhere and people were just like, “Aaahhh!”
JY: Yeah, there was another, like flood warning about a week or so after.
SR: Um-hum, it was, yeah it was one of those things since everything was so volatile, and then this is how, this is how the rescue teams would work as they would stay, like this was an elementary school–Brown’s Ferry Elementary I believe. And they have these cots, and the dudes will just live out of gymnasiums and there’ll be, like little eight foot basketball rims in a gymnasium and they’re, like, you know, these big dudes walking around and, like you know, the school and faculty bathrooms become their bathrooms and they live there for, you know, however long…
And this is probably the, the highest that it got. Well I don’t know, it could’ve gotten higher the next day, I stopped working at that point because the imagery kind of started getting redundant. And so, like it was, like wasn’t news anymore almost, and so, and I was tired. You get to a point where you’re just like, alright, like I’ve got enough of these images, and so.
JY: How did different people react to your presence as a photographer?
SR: The rescue teams, I think, really appreciated me being there because it showed people what they did. You know, because people typically don’t follow them into those scenarios and so, you know, it gives, it gives them kind of a voice, and a glimpse into their world and into what they do. And like for the most part, from how I, you know, there’s different stages to the flood and how, like rescue operations work, and specifically probably this flood in which, you know, when it hit the Midlands in Columbia, you know, you got, like the initial, like flash flood results of all the dams breaking. And then as time went along and days passed, you kind of had this, like slow monster that worked its way out to the coast. And so, like early rescue crews, you know, it’s that, like super-fast response, like I think kind of more like life and death situations, like ah someone’s stuck in a tree or, you know, like someone’s stuck in their house and the water’s still rising. Where these type of operations they were doing here was, like these people need to get their prescriptions from their house. And they had to leave in a hurry. So they would take them out, back to their house and so they need a boat to get back to out to get their prescriptions.
And then this is about at this spot, one of the National Guardsmen driving one of those troop transport vehicles that they were using to get through the high waters; and it drove, kind of got off the road here where it dipped in, the day before, and tipped over the whole vehicle. And they had to bring out (laughter) more giant equipment to upright it. And there was, like a load of people in it, didn’t like to into the water, but…
And then this guy’s job as a National Guardsman he was, his job, he stood in the back of the troop transport, which some of them had, like shade tops on, and some of them didn’t. And I, I don’t know why some of them did and some of them didn’t [laughter], because that one day it rained, obviously and they got – but his job was to stand at the back gate, and make sure no one fell out of the back. And then helped everyone in and out of the back of the transport, like all day long. You know, so like all day he long he just, like drove up, you know, he was in the back of that truck just, you know, like up into this community, like drove around taxiing people. Then like, driving back to this flooded water and, like, it’s like it’s kind of odd, you know, like I mean, not necessarily, I guess just odd and, like you never really think about, like what has to happen, like, when things start to flood.
Like people can just, like get trapped in their neighborhood and, like they’re not necessarily like, ‘ahh! we’re being overtaken by these flood waters’, but like, ‘we’re trapped in a neighborhood, we can’t get out’, you know, ‘we can’t get food, we may or may not have power’, you know. ‘Might want to go to work’. (laughter) You know, like all sorts of things, you know, might want to get back into your house to get your prescriptions, you know, and like just the details of how it affects, you know, different communities. And especially, like seeing like the different, like–what’s the right word, ‘socioeconomic’?– classes of people. Like, we was in, like the, you know, you see people in, like the Forest Acres who, you know, are kind of like are well off, and have family and friends who are more likely to have resources. Like, they’re more likely to have bass boats and the, the resources and the ability to, like hire people to come in and help them out and, like – and then how a community that might not be as well off, you know, like how they’re affected, and the differences that you probably need to approach. Where, like some communities are more equipped to, honestly, like handle a scenario.
This is one of the last photos I took of my coverage of the flood, and this is, the sun is, you know, about to set and I’m in the back of the troop transport about to head back out to the Brown’s Ferry neighborhood. And I’m assuming that since it’s–they’ve basically been running shuttles all day long– that they’re going to go out and come back. And sitting in there and somebody from the National Guard says, “You realize this truck is not coming tonight.” And everyone turns and looks at me [laughter]. I take a photo of everyone looking at me, it was like [laughter] made my decision [laughter]. And I had, I didn’t have my computer on me and I still had to file my photos to Getty, so I had to go back to my car. Otherwise I might have thought about it and, if I had my computer I – retrospect I should’ve let, I mean, they were about ready to go and they were loading – I would have to, I’d have two minutes I’d have to say, ‘give me two minutes, I’m going ‘, and then, like you know, like worse comes to worse, what do I, like sleep in the back of the – right? That’s what I should have done, but I decided to get out (laughter) after spending, I don’t know, like you know, I would’ve…
Yeah, that’s the end. Yeah. Because that was my second day in that neighborhood so actually, like (laughter) probably, like two 10 hour days in that neighborhood (laughter). I was probably ready to go home. But I should’ve, I should’ve went and grabbed my computer, my power cord, and just been like, I’m sure I could’ve found somebody that would put me up. At least that’s my theory, too, actually. And then I could’ve shot, like from the perspective of, like the family gets stuck in their neighborhood… Because my roommate already left, yeah he left.
JY: What’s– so like you saw so much in such a short, intense amount of time–are there any, like lingering thoughts or revelations that you’ve had or–?
SR: I mean, you see quite quickly, like – it’s kind of cliché, it’s said a lot, but like, you know, when people face hard times you see the best of people. And people being neighbors, like people doing neighborly things, and I, I think in this day and age we don’t see that as much because we, I think we’re in our homes so much; distracted by technology a lot of the times that, you know, we don’t know the people that live around us. But when, when shit hits the fan, you get to know your neighbors [laughter]. And that’s what I saw happening, it was like, people like getting to know each other and doing so in really compassionate ways. And it was just kind of like instance after instance after instance of, like just hearing stories about, and seeing neighbors looking out for each other and helping each other out.
And you know, people being like, ‘oh, like they were affected, I wasn’t; so I’m going to do whatever I can to help them out’, and, you know, it was just, that happening again and again and again. So it was, it was kind of like this thing that you would, kind of, see as, like, you know, it kind of has, like it’s not going to ever have, like a bad memory for me, because like, I got–especially right now– I mean, look at what’s going on in the world: I mean, we’re bombarded by, like the worst in humanity, like, and I’m addicted to the news cycle, but you know, right now we just, we’re bombarded by seeing the worst in humanity on every, like spectrum of thing that we consume, media-wise [laughter] or at least I do. And you know, this, I got see, like the opposite end of the spectrum, so… It was, you know, that was refreshing…
It was really nice to be able to be…curious. Like to where it’s like, here your job is to be curious, so I’m really appreciative the fact that there was somebody there who was willing to pay for me to go out and be curious and find out, like, what was going on. Like, I know there was a National Guard photographer that was out there in this area, but like, you know, obviously, like without him or me – and there’s, you know, there’s different communities and different things that– like people just aren’t going to see, you know. These small towns, too, like I can start to, like understand a lot more of, like the role, you know, because we’re so bombarded by instant media and at cameras being, you know, like, they were kind of being pictures of everything almost all the time. But like, I think you get into a little bit more of an understanding when… when you’re working with people who have the channels to, like get them out there for, like the whole world to see. You know, so it’s like, you kind of like, it allowed me to see, like the effect and the power and that was interesting to kind of consume on that level.
I kind of felt like it was, like, not without it sounding, like cheesy, but like, you know, it was kind of like, ‘it was my job’. But like, and like, not in the sense of, like ‘oh that’s my job, that’s the way that I, like make money’, but like, that’s actually my role, like that’s what I’m supposed to do in this scenario. And like, if I’m not doing that it’s a waste, like there’s something that’s wrong. Like, that’s what I should be doing. And I think it kind of solidified, like that type of action from me.
I think I just said, I’d never really been in that scenario. Like I don’t know if I’d ever been in, like US, like if there’s anything, like I’ve experienced like this. Like, I’ve been in… this is going to sound ridiculous–at the turn of the century, (laughter) I think it was 1999–I can do the math. Alright, so ’97, ’98, it must’ve been – I think it was the summer of 1999– turn of the century, summer of 1999, I am spending the summer with my parents in their new retirement home in Palm Coast, Florida. And that was the year that all of Florida caught on fire, and it was, like, it was like, it seemed like it was going on for, like a month. There’d be, like eight fires a day that were, like, just like jumping over ninety and they were having to close off large sections of 95. And like, getting from, like Jacksonville to Daytona was just like, an ordeal. And I lived in between Daytona Beach and Jacksonville. And you’d wake up and there would be, like ashes, like covered your car because of, like just get up in the atmosphere and then overnight it would just rain ash. And then sometimes there would be actual, like chunks, like embers, like black pieces of black that would, like fall down.
And we got, our whole county was evacuated. And it took us eight hours to get from Palm Coast, Florida to St. Augustine, Florida, which was normally a 45 minute drive. And then we lived in a hotel for, like three or four days maybe, up in St. Augustine. And so that was kind of like, I mean, very much like a flood, you know, like we had to, like pack up all our – flood, we were more prepared for the fire because, like it’d been going on and it was, like ‘chances are it’s going to, you know, there’s a good chance it might happen, like be prepared’. And my parents were definitely that way, it’s like by the time it happened we were all ready to go. But I didn’t have the chance to, like be curious, because like, driving, it was like – man, was I driving–we had a pickup truck, and we had a boat on a trailer, and then another car, and so I think my dad and I were driving so it was like, I kind of had to, like – I don’t know, I didn’t feel like I had, I guess I just didn’t have the, the confidence just to be, like, ‘I’m going to cover this’. Because I was, like nineteen (laughter), you know, and so like that whole time I remember being like, I just want to go out and, like cover this natural disaster that’s going on, but like, here I am being kind of like a participant and, like being at a hotel and, like, you know… I remember the first night we stayed someone stole all the gas out of our boat. But it’s not the same, like gas that you use in your car so if they put it in their car they got a probably, not a very good reaction from it, so. It’s like, my dad didn’t care, he was kind of a little bit pissed off but he was like, “Ah, it’s probably going to fuck up their car.” So… (laughter) So yeah, but we ate out every night because, you know, it was like, you know, my parents are retired and they have some money and, you know, they knew that flood insurance or at least that thought that flood insurance–fire insurance– would cover it, so.
But yeah, we watched – at first my neighborhood got evacuated. They had different street sections and they would just go on TV and list street sections, like snow closings, school closings for snow days. And then saw, like our section of where we lived and we went and stayed that night in town, just somewhere else with some of my parents’ friends. And we sat up on the roof at night, and the whole skyline– not the whole skyline– but a very large swath of the skyline, was just all glowing red. And we’d just sit there and it was just, like ‘man, I wonder if my house is on fire?’ Like, it could be; it’s kind of hard to judge that way. And the next day we woke up and found out that the whole county was being evacuated and, so… (laughter)
Went, got on the move and had to–95 was shut down because of– flames were leaping across the highway. And you could only go, from where we were you could only go west to Orlando, or north or south on A1A. So like, everyone in the county had to leave, like basically going out, like those two main ways. And it was just, ah it took so long. It was, it was a slow, weird process. But yeah, that’s something that would be like that, but everything else, I don’t know.
JY: Is there anything else that you would want to share or want people to know?
SR: (laughter)I don’t think so.
JY: Could you tell people where they could find your photos if they wanted to follow up and check out your work?
SR: To see the photos that I took during the, I guess over a week long coverage of the flood in South Carolina you can go to seanrayford.com, and there’s a little menu item on the top and you can click on portfolios and follow the link to flood.
JY: Thank you so much.
SR: Thank you very much.
End of Interview