Trees get last laugh - swamp devestated by Hugo now home to six national champion trees; Eastover, SC

Swamp regenerates after storm - Neighbors - The State:
Hurricane Hugo blew down one of the biggest trees in America, located on an oak ridge in the Congaree swamp. For years after the storm, the shumard oak lay there, rotting.
The last traces of it are surely gone by now, said John Cely, who worked for the state Department of Natural Resources for 26 years and knows the swamp as well as anyone.
Since then, other big trees have stretched toward the clouds.
Now, there are six national champion species in the 26,000-acre swamp, said Vic Shelbourne, a Clemson professor who's the one South Carolinian responsible for keeping track of record-setting trees.