Storm fallout: Thousands of power outages, possible flooding still to come

Dominion Energy reported 17,000 power outages Friday morning

WEST COLUMBIA, S.C. (WOLO) —As a result of the severe weather Thursday night into Friday morning, several people are left cleaning up a mess and some are still waiting to get power in their homes.

“The storm that moved through yesterday was very powerful for a wintertime storm. We had a line of severe thunderstorms move across the state yesterday, produced widespread wind damage across much of the state, and we even had reports of tornadoes as well,” said John Quagliariello, a Warning Coordination Meteorologist for National Weather Service in Columbia.

Some areas of the state that were impacted by tornadoes were Northern Aiken County as well as Spartanburg.

In Lexington County, heavy winds took down the roof of a gas station in West Columbia.

There were also several reports of trees and downed power lines reported across the Midlands.

Even though the storm has come and gone, the National Weather Service says the risk of flooding is still very present.

“We had a lot of rain, not only in the central part of the state where we’re at here, but also in the Upstate, and those are the headwaters for a lot of our rivers, so all of that rain that fell in the Upstate is now working our way through our river systems, causing the rivers to rise. Many of them will be reaching moderate to major flooding over the next couple of days,” Quagliariello said.

Meanwhile, Dominion Energy reported more than 17,000 power outages across the state, with most happening in Lexington and Richland Counties.

“Anytime you have 50 to 60 mile per hour winds, especially if it’s been raining, you’re going to have lines falling so that was the bulk of our issues was trees falling, but fortunately it was not as bad as it could have been,” said Matt Long of Dominion Energy.

With some customers still without power across the state, Long encourages them to stay patient.

“We’re going to focus on those areas where maybe if you fix a transformer here or a line here, you’re going to impact 2,000 customers as opposed to those maybe on a country road where you only have 20 customers. The focus is getting as many customers back on as possible,” Quagliariello said.

As of 5:30 p.m. Friday, Dominion Energy reported 1,563 outages across the state, including 968 combined in both Richland and Lexington Counties.

The Mid-Carolina Electric Cooperative also reported 293 power outages for their Lexington County customers as of 5:30 p.m. Friday.