Hurricane Helene causes thousands of Midlands residents to lose power

COLUMBIA, SC (WIS) – As Hurricane Helene moves north, bringing gusty winds and heavy rain to South Carolina, several counties have reported weather-related power outages.

According to Bluefire Studios’ outage map, over 140,000 South Carolinians are without power as of about 4 a.m. While most of these outages are occurring in the state’s southernmost counties such as Beaufort, Jasper, Colleton and Hampton counties, several thousand energy customers in the Midlands are also without power.

The outages in the Midlands are spread across the region, with Richland and Lexington counties having the highest numbers as of about 4 a.m

Richland County is reporting over 14,000 outages as of early Friday morning, most of which are Dominion Energy customers.

In Lexington County, more than 13,000 customers are also experiencing a power outage. Most of these customers also use Dominion Energy.

According to Bluefire, nearly 10% of Saluda County residents experienced a power outage Friday morning. By 4 a.m., over 1,000 outages had been logged. More than 1,000 outages were also reported in Newberry County.

In Sumter County, more than 2,000 residents have been without power since 4 a.m., most of them Duke Energy customers.

Orangeburg County also reported more than 2,000 outages early Friday morning, primarily among Orangeburg Public Utilities customers.

Helene made landfall heading toward the Georgia-Tennessee border around 11:20 p.m. Thursday evening with winds of about 85 miles per hour. WIS News 10’s First Alert Weather team has determined that almost all of the precipitation will fall in the Midlands overnight and into Friday morning.

In addition to power outages, various road closures were reported across the Midlands. Many schools and state offices have also announced schedule changes due to the storm.

Click here to learn more about Hurricane Helene in the Midlands.

This story is developing. Check back here for updates.

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