Duke Power: All customers should have power by end of Wed.

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Duke Energy says it hopes to restore power to nearly all its South Carolina customers soon.

The utility said on its website that about 7,000 customers remain without power Wednesday afternoon. Duke Power said it hopes to have all of its work done by the end of Wednesday.

Most of the outages remain in Anderson and Greenwood counties.

Blue Ridge Electric Cooperative reported just over 1,000 power outages, mostly in Pickens County.

Crews are racing to get the power back on as temperatures are about to plummet. Forecasters say wind chills could be below zero in northern South Carolina by sunrise Thursday. Lows Friday morning could be in single-digits in places like Spartanburg and just above 10 degrees in Columbia and Florence.