COLUMBIA, S.C. — Utility companies are making progress Saturday in the effort to restore power in South Carolina but are warning it may take several more days before all the lights are back on.
As of late Saturday morning just over 1 million customers were without power, according to PowerOutage.us, a website that collects data from multiple utility websites. At the peak, just under 1.4 million homes and businesses were without electricity. That's over 40 percent of the state.
The outages were the highest of any state affected by Hurricane Helene, including Florida, where the storm made landfall, and Georgia, where it moved next. There is some context to those numbers: much of the area Helene tore through in those states is very rural. In South Carolina, however, it knocked out virtually all the power in the densely populated counties of Greenville and Spartanburg, as well as significant outages in the areas around the capitol of Columbia, including Richland and Lexington Counties.
Dominion Energy said Saturday that as of 8 a.m. they'd restored power to about half of the people who'd lost it the previous day. They said because of the extensive damage to the system they are unable to provide exact times for restoration, but that some customers should expect it to take days to get their lights back on. They added that additional crews were on the way from North Carolina, Virginia, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Illinois, and Texas.
Crews spent Friday assessing damage and in some cases needed to cut their way through debris just to determine what was left standing.
“You will be frustrated. Tomorrow it’s going to be 86 degrees and clear. You’re going to say ‘Why can’t I watch the football game? Why can’t my life be back to normal?’ Life’s not going to be back to normal until probably the middle of next week,” Dominion Energy South Carolina President Keller Kissam said Friday.
Kissam said crews will be working 24 hours a day. "I assure you we will not stop working until the last South Carolinian has their power restored," he added.
Rob Hostelter, CEO of Central Electric Power Cooperative, said the electric co-ops, which serve many rural parts of the state, got hit hard, with just under half of all customers statewide losing electricity.
He likened the effort and priority of repairs to highways, where the transmission system is the interstate, and power substations are the exit ramps that then lead to the local neighborhoods.
"So we've got to get the interstate--the transmission system--running and then the delivery points back up," Hostelter said.
He said some employees who'd been with the company for 40 years--and who remember Hurricane Hugo in 1989 and the ice storm of 2014--called this the most destructive storm they've ever seen. "It's substantial, it's bad," Hostelter said.
Gov. Henry McMaster said the storm moved east of where it was forecast and gave the state a bigger blow than expected.
“We urge everybody to be patient and keep your neighbors in your prayers,” McMaster said.
POWER COMPANIES
Dominion Energy: The company says the fastest and most secure way to report or track an outage is using the Dominion Energy app, which is free in the Apple and Google Play stores. Customers may also report outages by going to DominionEnergy.com or calling 800-251-7234.
Duke Energy
Phone: 800.543.5599
Click here for online reporting system
Orangeburg DPU:
Phone: 803-268-4100
South Carolina Electric Cooperative's Outage Map:
Aiken Electric Cooperative
1-877-264-5368
1-803-649-6245
1-800-922-1262
Berkeley Electric Cooperative
1-888-253-4232
Black River Electric Cooperative
Sumter- 1-803-469-8060
Camden- 1-803-432-9854
Blue Ridge Electric Cooperative
1-888-258-3743
Broad River Electric Cooperative
Cherokee County- 1-864-489-5738
Other Counties- 1-866-266-7688
Coastal Electric Cooperative
1-843-538-5800
Edisto Electric Cooperative
1-800-433-3292
Fairfield Electric Cooperative
1-800-499-7862
Horry Electric Cooperative
1-843-369-2212
Laurens Electric Cooperative
1-800-942-3141
Little River Electric Cooperative
1-800-459-2141 or 366-2141
Lynches River Electric Cooperative
1-866-675-5732
Marlboro Electric Cooperative
1-843-479-38551-800-922-9174
Mid-Carolina Electric Cooperative
1-803-749-6444
1-888-813-7000
Newberry Electric Cooperative
1-803-276-1121
Palmetto Electric Cooperative
1-866-445-5551
Pee Dee Electric Cooperative
1-843-665-4070
1-866-747-0060
Santee Electric Cooperative
1-888-239-2300
Tri-County Electric Cooperative
1-803-874-1215
1-877-874-1215
York Electric Cooperative
1-866-374-1234