Weather

South Carolina: Powering Back Up

Outages on the decline…

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Power outages in South Carolina associated with Hurricane Helene have finally dipped under half a million, according to the latest data from PowerOutages.Us. That’s down from a peak of nearly 1.4 million outages in the Palmetto State late last week.

As of 2:00 p.m. EDT on Wednesday (October 2, 2024), 481,204 of South Carolina’s 2.85 million utility customers were without power – or 16.9 percent of the state’s customer base. Of those outages, 320,298 were customers of Charlotte, N.C.-based Duke Energy.

Approximately 37.7 percent of Duke’s customer base in South Carolina was without power on Wednesday afternoon, per the data. Meanwhile, Duke’s outages accounted for more than two-thirds of the Palmetto State’s powerless customer base.

South Carolina power outages continue to far exceed those in North Carolina (397K) or Georgia (338K) – prompting criticism of officials’ response at the state and local levels.

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As our outlet previously reported, Helene’s path shifted east just prior to its cataclysmic landfall near Perry, Florida last Thursday evening. As a result, South Carolina’s westernmost counties found themselves very much in the path of the massive storm as it bulldozed its way through Florida and Georgia. Moreover, the Palmetto State was in the path of Helene’s right frontal quadrant – the strongest part of the storm.

While spared the unmitigated disaster that befell Florida’s Gulf Coast and western North Carolina – which saw catastrophic flooding in the aftermath of the storm – South Carolina nonetheless sustained significant damage from Helene.

In fairness to Duke, its service area in South Carolina was hit harder than the service areas of many other providers. Still, the company received poor marks from customers for its response to the storm – including an alleged lack of preparation prior to the system’s arrival and poor communication after the storm hit.

Count on our media outlet to continue reporting on the fallout from Helene – and on South Carolina’s recovery efforts (such as they are). Also, count on us to keep our audience in the loop on ongoing efforts to address critical energy infrastructure needs.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …

Will Folks (Dylan Nolan)

Will Folks is the owner and founding editor of FITSNews. Prior to founding his own news outlet, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina, bass guitarist in an alternative rock band and bouncer at a Columbia, S.C. dive bar. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.

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1 comment

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The Colonel Top fan October 2, 2024 at 6:37 pm

If you’re still without power, please turn everything you can off, unplug TVs, computers and other sensitive electronics.

If the line into your house is damaged the power company will fix it AS LONG AS your connection point appears undamaged. If your weather head (the pipe that sticks up from your roof ) is damaged, Dominion’s general protocol is to fix your line but NOT connect it to the house as it is a ginormous safety hazard. Fixing the connection point is generally your responsibility – you’ll need to hire an electrician.

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