I painted these four 10″ x 10″ canvases during the week we waited for the power to return. This was after Hurricane Helene hit our corner of Greenville County. We faced the inconvenience of no electricity in an all-electric house. We had no water because we’re on a well driven by an electric pump. But, we suffered little damage. The power returned after six days. We live in a rural area surrounded by fields and woods. Around us, the natural devastation was breathtaking. These four paintings illustrate my reactions to the first day after the storm.

Each is painted individually, but I’ve set them side-by-side in a four-panel “cartoon strip”. The colors are simple and bright, mostly straight from the tube. This is because, after the storm passed, the day was unusually beautiful and clean.

Helene hit in the early morning hours filled with sound. Wind-driven rain and debris pounded against the house. Just before light, a tremendous rumble rose above the roar of the storm. It sounded like a dozen freight trains on steel wheels rolling down the street. It didn’t seem to come from any one direction, but everywhere at once. It was a deep sound felt in my bones. It continued for what seemed like 15 or 20 minutes. Dawn was a dome of deep blue, continuous from east to west. When the storm abated mid-morning, we stepped outside. The fields were evenly strewn with shredded leaves and twigs. The red ground was gashed open where flying things had torn across it.

The even pattern of shredded things continued in the woods behind our house. Trails were gone. Trees— 60′, 80′, 100′ tall—were top down in the stream at the bottom of the gully or leaning wildly or fallen against their neighbors as if the whole scene was now frozen in the act of mid-destruction. The slightest breeze threatened to resume its fragile collapse.

Stands of old trees and massive oaks fell. They pealed back the red soil like pop-tops exposing a century’s worth of roots.

Evening came. The sky remained clear blue for a long time. The sounds of chainsaws and searching utility trucks ended. Electric-less night gathered in. Our Mexican Petunias set out purple flowers. Yellow butterflies tended them.