Marianne took this picture. Nobody was hurt. But the driver was shaken up. This one of many trees that came down. This was not a full tree. This was half of a t tree. You u n see the size of this thing. It was huge. So a lot of us had trees down, at arrest least some limbs. Winds are gusting to 40ish. The winds are out of the west and they will continue to be roughly from that direction west and southwest as we go overnight into and into tomorrow. Tonight continues to be windy. Expect it to be that way right until we get up in the morning. Here are the temperatures, as you see. Were in the 50s and a couple of mid 40s. Temperatures wont drop all that much. Were talking about low to mid40s thats about as cool as well get overnight. Getting going tomorrow morning, this is how things are gonna look. It will be bright and sunny. Breezy. Well see gusts tomorrow morning the winds will slowly abate as we go overnight tonight. Here is a look at your forecast for tomorrow. It stays breezy. Gusts in the range of 25. Today we had gusts to 55, even pushing 60 in a couple of places. It will be a lot less windy. Shouldnt see any damage like that tomorrow. It will be one of those days that windier than normal. As we go forward, theres plenty of sunshine in that forecast. Well talk about all this the specifics of the sevenday including your weekend. Thats in about ten minutes. Thank you john. Thankfully, no major issues in the region. But that wind was certainly felt. We could hear it right here at main and gervais. A constant whistle going on. The wind sent debris in your yards, a chill down manys spines. Grace joyal continues our Team Coverage tonight. Reporter downed trees, some big waves here at lake murray on this wednesday as wild winds whipped across the midlands. Her anger, its fierce, came crashing down along lake lake murrays shore line. I havent seen it this choppy with the spells like this in a long time. Reporter Mother Nature unleashed a boat load of wind toworry about. T t wind is more frightening than anything else. Reporter john farley said gusts reached up to 56 miles an hour at the lake. The hardhitting winds, leaving about 20,000 people in the dark in richland and lexington counties earlier. It flickered on earlier, four, five times and went out for ten minutes. Then at 3 30 it went off for an hour. Reporter power was restored to many by wednesday night. Crews were cleaning up the mess from the wind as the sun set. Tackling this downed tree, at marion and laurel street streets. The sunshine, trumping the wind for some of you looking for exercise. Its a lot windier on the dam than it is in the neighborhood. Reporter this family hitting pavement after the power went out at their gym. Were dop. Were gonna get out of the wind before our lips an cheeks become chapped. Reporter fingers crossed, its smooth sailing. Grace joyal, abc columbia news. Thank you. A woman whose home was destroyed by floodwaters last october was able to return home tonight. Jennifer gneiser and her two sons were forced to leave their pine glen home four months ago. Well, now, with new floors, doors and walls, thanks to the combined efforts of the st. Bernard project and the united way and the mungo foundation, jennifer says the home is a dream come true. You see it all put back. Overwhelming. We have a home again. The Foundation Continues the legacy of michaha mungo who believed that everyone is home. President bill clinton is set to make an appearance to clinton. He will speak at the Freedom Center i rock hill. Thats scheduled for 11 45 a. M. The doors open at 11 00. Hillary clinton continues to crisscross South Carolina during a stop in columbia. Sh vowed to fight systemic racism if elected president. She called in it one of the barriers. Clinton was the guest speaker at a luncheon hosted by Tau Kappa Epsilon sorority. I emphasized that any view of black america that focuses exclusively as the press on crime or poverty or other challenges is really missing the big picture. Clinton picked up another endorsement. Harry reid announced his support for her campaign. It was nice that Hillary Clinton wore her green. Bernie sanders is not writing off South Carolina even though he wont spend much time in the palmetto state in the days leading up to the primary. He held a News Conference in columbia before heading to the campaign in missouri. He told reporters that hes proud of the gains he made in recent polls and resently he picked up an endearsment from spike lee. Donald trump is savoring his big win in tuesdays nevada caucuses. Up for grabs on super tuesday next week, hes eyeing the state. He s. A. T. Down withtelevangelist pat robertson. He helds into super tuesday with delegates as his rivals. 13 contests will take place on march 1st. Destates for the republicans that day include texas, georgia and tennessee. Now, for the democrats, key states include texas, georgia and colorado. Former gop president ial candidate mitt romney says he believes there is a bomb spell in trumps tax history. He says trump and other gop president ial candidates need to release all of their Tax Information for the sake of voters. The 2012 nominees suggested that perhaps trump is not as wealthy as he claims and is not paying certain taxes. All right. Here at home, the city of columbias top cop says crime is down. Chief skip hol brock and his officers met to discuss what progress has been made so far and where work still needs to be done. He said his agency receives the most calls about car breakins and thefts. He also adds that he hopes to body cameras by midmarch. Nikki haley and university of South Carolina hair wrist pastides announced Harris Pastides announced fighting crime today. The goal is to help train people from all organizations about security techniques to counter cyber criminals and prevent the theft of vital information. In 2012, something circumstance something a Revenue Department was hit by a massive hack. Tax rushes and 700,000 businesses were stolen. Staying on the crime beat, one of the teens charged with shooting a puppy 18 times is out of jail. This is an update to a story we brought you last night at 11 00. 17yearold Demonte Douglas posted bon posted bond. He and another teen are charged with cruelty to animals. A knife at it. Prody survived and continues to recover. The family adopting the puppy will visit with him tomorrow. Coming up lawmakers continue their efforts to bring the Military Museum to the low country. Well have the details. And columbia has talent. And all of the performers are members of ure our homeless according to abc news. Florida state welcome back. Abc news is reporting floridada state leaders havee suspended the schools Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity into hazing allegations. A graduate said pledges were forced to engage in a drinking game and were left strafnded 150 miles from theallahassee campus. Former Texas Governor rick perry says the dismissal of a case against him shows indictments were a base also political attack but did admit the charms hurt his president ial bid. Court dismissed an abuse abuseofpower indictment against him. The case came about from a threat to veto money for travis countys Public Integrity unit unless the District Attorney resigned for her dwi conviction. Perry stopped the money when the District Attorney refused to resign. This could get interesting. The white house is said to be considering republican governor Brian Sandoval as and a for the supreme court. I recognize the politics are hard for them because the easier thing to do is to give into the most extreme voices within their party and stand pat and do nothing. Our job can is to fulfill our constitutional duties. I think it will be very difficult for mr. Mcdonnell to explain how mr. Mcconnell to explain how if the public concludes this pesh is qualified that person is qualified that the senate should stand in the way. The president s comments come one day after things got heated for a fight on any potential white house selection. In an unprecedented move, republicans on the senate jew Judiciary Committee wrote a letter vowing to forgo any hearings on the selection. South carolinas chief justice is asking legislators to increase judges salaries. Colorado is deeply concernedhes concerned about the fees to operate and is asking the legislature for nearly increase in judges salaries. The Confederate Flag removed from state grounds last summer may be displayed somewhere in charleston. Its at the relic room and Military Museum. The ways and means can committee advanced a proposal requiring annal analysis of museum space. If space exists, lawmakers would determine how much it would cost to move the museum and its collections to charleston. Well, voices so often ignored or silenced will take the mic for a show that promises to inspire and maybe even make you think a little bit different about the homeless. Silent voices is a talent performed by columbias homeless community. This is video from the event in past years. You will see dances that tell their journey. Songs that demystify their reality and poem readings aimed associated with homelessness. Join me tomorrow night as i coemcee the event at Tapps Art Center downtown. Swing by at 6 00 for a silent auction or show up at 7 00 for the show. A 10 donation is suggested with all of the proceeds going directly to the performers themselves. Theres tom one of the organizers with homeless helping homeless and i believe tomorrow night there will be some creative readings. Okay. And dances. Theres some assistance from artists. But it is a show to be seen. How did they find the talent . Just in working with the homeless community. They just yeah. They they set up shop out there at the mcdonalds on forest drive. I dont know if you have swung by there on saturday morning but they are the ones doing the car washes. A lot of people dont understand that you have working homeless. Someone you work with might be homeless. It will be great to see that talent just on a big stage to be able to kind of salute that. Im looking forward to it. Yeah. It will be good. First year emceeing it . Yes. Coming up next john farley with your boy, was it windy out there today. Blowing like crazy. Yeah. Everywhere midlands, actually, everywhere. Southeast a lot of wind all over r the place. We kind of lucked out here. We got very gusty winds but in terms of Severe Weather we didnt get too much. I had a friend traveling through columbia. It took her half an hour to get through columbia because all of the street lights were out because the power were out. There were several thousand without power but things have improved. A beautiful shot of the moon. By the way, the moon was full a couple of nights ago. Pretty goodlooking shot out there. In terms of the gusts today, it i tracked down these for you, so you can see how strong the wind was. We got up to 57 miles an hour here in downtown columbia. Lake murray 56. The airport, 53. Probably there was some in the range of 60, maybe even better. Of course, judging by the damage that was the case as well. Now, the other thing that you may have noticed today was it was warm. It got all the way to 80. 1 degree shy of a record. For a little while in ther iy part of the afternoon, it was sticky but things doctor have cooled off and well continue over the next couple of days. Whats left of the storm system, not much. A few clouds blowing in from the west. The main event is drifting up to the north and east. This front is off the coast. So despite the fact there were many tornadoes. Unfortunately, three fatalities in virginia confirmed tonight from one of the tornadoes that went on through, the focus of the action is now the threat of severe storms in and around new york city and on into southern new england. Thats where things are in terms of any significant weather tonight. And whats down here in the south is not much. We have severe thunderstorms and also that will continue over in through southern connecticut and even parts of rhode island. For us back at home, the whole continue to see wind overnight. Gusting to 40 and slowly tapering as we go toward the morning but still a pretty windy tonight. Here is your commute. It will be clear and breezy. Temperatures will be in the low to pushing mid40s or so. Sunrise tomorrow morning right around 7 00. Here is a look at tomorrow afternoon. Breezy. Gusts to around 5. Which, as s u know, a lot last than today. Temperatures mid to upper 50s. Should be a pleasant afternoon for you and looking ahead, its dry. For a long time. All the way through the sevenday here. Temperatures listen cooler especially as we go friday night into saturday morning. Well be down around freezing and slowly into next week, the temperatures will start to climb in the low 70s but in terms of threat of Severe Weather, thats done it. As we go forward here, it will be much, much quieter. An frankly, we could use that. Over to you, two. Effect on carolina baseball. Well have the highlights after the break. It looks like gamecocks basketball might be made up of a bunch of night owls. Play for. Including payback. Hi, im tim hill. Plenty to play for including the little payck. Gamecock basketball still in the hunt for the championship coming into the night. Also looking to avenge a loss earlier in the season to tennessee. Good Colonial Life arena crowd on hand despite tipoff being after 9 00 this evening. Frank martin hates the late rick barnes never loss to usc. Two columbia kids hooking up. Pj dozier to mack. Out to ther i 10point lead. Duane notice, zone busting. Game cooks shoot 59 percent. Three straight notice threes. Gives him 15 firsthalf points. Puts usc up 15 at the break. Second half, laimonas chatkevicius. The blocked shot. To thornwell. He pushes it the other way. Michael carrera ends up putting it in. Everything going uscs way. Laimonas chatkevicius showing off post moves. Oh, martin on the bench overjoyed. Fellow seniors carrera and. Carolina goes on to crush tennessee, 8458. 105 in the sec. Just their fourth tenwin sec season. Gamecocks go to Mississippi State saturday. Texas a m hosting the bulldogs tonight. Aggies hoping to stay tied with usc for second place in the standings. House does his part. Final seconds, craig sword coming up clutch for Mississippi State. Tied ballgame. No timeout on the other end. House to the hoop. Gets the call at home. He would hit the two freethrows. Texas a m tops Mississippi State, 6866. One pore score for you on the night, georgia loses by 3 at auburn. Bull dolls come bulldogs come here a week from tomorrow. Warm for the gamecocks today. Anything but luxurious conditions, though. The wind, absolutely whipping over at founders park. Mostly blowing straight out this afternoon. 40. Tj hopkins taking advantage of the wind. His first career home run. Threerun shot. That gives carolina the lead. Led. Three for four. Gamecocks in cruise control. They keep it going on the base pads as well. Winthrop, no answer. Cropper, the usc starter, gets a career high, eight strikeouts. U u usc improves. Cad holbrook off to quite a good start this year, 50. Couldnt be much better for usc baseball right now. Cropper . Yeah. Born to to play baseball. John farley coming up next straight ahead. Blowing like crazy out there earlier today. We had gusts pushing 60 miles an hour. Thats a lot of wind. Look at that. Trees blowing all over the place. Of course, thats what we had here in columbia, really all over the midlands. Lets give you a look at whats going on outside now and we have our camera focused on the flag right across the street here at the statehouse. And there it is. Still blowing like crazy. Still gusting to 40 here in columbia. Now, it will eventually loosen upup here and in the the wind will die off. It will take tomorrow night before its back down to next to nothing. Here is a look at the forecast. What you see here is that well see gustsenup to 25. Thats on the order of half, a lot less windy. As we go forward, you will see the temperatures dipping in the 50s during the day for a couple of days here. By the time we get to the second half of the weekend, back in the 6 hoss 60s and in terms of rain, no rain on that sevenday forecast. Weve had our share. We could use a good week to dry out and well get it. Do you recommend that when we do have heavy rainfall for people to stay away from roads that have a lot of trees like corley mill road maybe a couple of days after or do you think it makes a difference . Probably after the fact you are probably okay. Theyve not toppled over you are probably okay. Okay. Today was dangerous. Grace joyal said right at her house a big 50foot tree came down. But a day like today, when the ground was saturated and the roots dont have anything to grab onto walked into work and your hair was like this, its all good. You were in good company. Have a good night. Captioning provided by captionassociates www. Captionassociates. Com kimmel live tonight, Chef Gordon Ramsay from underground Jurnee Smollettbell and music from wolfmother with cleto and the cletones. And now, no one objects