Remnants of Hurricane Ian slow over the Carolinas, power outages remain along the coast

Power remains out for an estimated 12,000 South Carolinians even as the remnants of Hurricane Ian wind down over North Carolina. While heavy rain is still expected to continue into Saturday morning, the storm has weakened considerably since making landfall near Georgetown, SC, Friday afternoon.

South Carolina’s largest power utilities reported that tens of thousands of customers were still being impacted by power outages.

At around 2:15 p.m., electric providers approximated the numbers of South Carolinians still affected by outages:

Dominion Energy — 419

Duke Energy — 2,756

Santee Cooper — 646

Santee Electric Coop — 5,508

Horry Electric Cooperative — 1,526

Berkeley Electric Cooperative — 973

The majority of the outages remain focused on the coast, where Ian’s wind, rain, and floodwaters brought down power lines. In Folly Beach, ABC news reported the sound of transformers exploding.

Dominion Energy is currently reporting just 28 customers without power in Richland and Lexington Counties.

“Our crews have made significant progress restoring power after Hurricane Ian. Completing restoration for our remaining customers continues to be our focus. We anticipate most customers will be restored by today,” Dominion Energy said in a statement on their website.

All but a handful of homes will have power restored by sunset on Saturday, said Nanette Edwards, executive director of the Office of Regulatory Staff, at a news briefing. The total of those affected peaked at almost 240,000 on Friday.