Ice storm hits rural SC especially hard

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Gov. Nikki Haley plans to visit areas heavily damaged by this week’s ice storm in South Carolina.

Haley will travel to Aiken and Walterboro on Friday to talk to local leaders and utility officials.

About 295,000 utility customers remain in the dark after two days of freezing rain and sleet. Hardest hit were rural areas outside of Columbia and Charleston as well as Aiken, Florence and Sumter.

The Electric Cooperatives of South Carolina had 144,000 customers without power. Co-op officials said some of them had never seen this type of damage before as an inch of ice tore down poles and tree limbs.

South Carolina Electric & Gas had about 90,000 outages remaining. Duke Energy reported about 60,000 customers without service.

It will be next week before everyone has power.