Hurricane Helene punched the Columbia area and South Carolina with high winds and heavy rain during the early morning hours Friday, leaving a mess of flooded streets, downed trees and tens of thousands of homes in the capital city without power.
Statewide at about 10 a.m. there were 1.4 million people in South Carolina without electricity, according to PowerOutage.us.
More than 106,000 customers were without power in Richland County as of 10 a.m., while Lexington County had nearly 122,000 outages. Charleston County had 30,000 outages at that point, while Greenville County had more than 250,000 customers without power.
11 a.m.
The Lexington County Sheriff’s Department said first responders “continue to assess storm damage and road closures” there.
“Dozens of roads across the county are impassable due to downed trees, power lines and other debris,” Public Information Officer Capt. Adam Myrick said. “We have no reports of major injuries or deaths associated with the storm.”
10:45 a.m.
Officials with the Irmo Fire District reported that “dozens” of trees went down Friday morning, crashing into houses and across yards. “No neighborhood was spared,” the fire district posted, alongside a photo of a tree that crashed through a house. “Stay home.”
10:40 a.m.
Dominion Energy said it will be opening a spill gate at Lake Murray, releasing more water into the Saluda River to deal with additional water brought on by Helene.
“In addition to flowing water through the Saluda Hydroelectric plant’s generators, Dominion Energy will open a spill gate at the Lake Murray dam around 11 a.m.,” said Matthew Long, who does media relations for Dominion.
“This will compensate for a unit at the plant that is out of service for scheduled maintenance. We will continue to monitor the storm and make any adjustments if needed.”
10:25 a.m.
The University of South Carolina has downed trees around campus, a spokesman said, including one on the Historic Horseshoe, known for its towering oaks.
“Awaiting info on whether we had any building damage. We have power currently,” the spokesman said.
The USC Board of Trustees meeting, which was scheduled to be held the system’s Bluffton campus, was moved to its Hilton Head campus. The full board will meet, but committee meetings have been canceled.
10:05 a.m.
The Columbia Metropolitan Airport is working to continue with flights Friday morning.
“We have had six delays and six cancellations so far, but we just had our [Dallas/Fort Worth] flight on American Airlines take off, so that’s good that they were able to get out,” said Kim Crafton, the airport’s vice president of marketing and air service development.
“Winds right now are just the biggest issue. As you can guess, the wind gusts make it really challenging for aircraft to take off or land. Currently, we have not had any arrivals this morning, so it’s just going to be a fluid situation for the next few hours or so, if not the majority of today.”
10 a.m.
Batesburg-Leesville, in the far west of Lexington County, reports a large number of downed trees and other impacts from the storm.
The town’s police chief, Darren Amick, said they are dealing with about 40 roads blocked by power lines and fallen trees.
“We have no fatalities, no stranded vehicles. The flooding issue wasn’t near as bad as it was last time,” Amick said, referring to a storm that caused major flooding issues in the town last summer. “So all the roads would be passable, flooding wise, but we got trees everywhere and some roofs off. And of course, some people were stranded in some of their houses and their cars. And we got one family displaced right now that’s staying up here at our police department.”
Impacted roadways include U.S. 1 near Leesville Methodist Church, which is completely blocked by a large tree, and U.S. 23 near Batesburg Baptist Church, which is also completely blocked.
9:48 a.m.
City of Forest Acres spokeswoman Lynnsey Baker said the city had more than 30 trees down as of early Friday morning.
The spokeswoman advised Forest Acres residents to call their insurance company if a tree is down in their yard, to call Forest Acres Police if a tree is down in a roadway, to contact Forest Acres Fire Department if a tree is on a house and people need to be rescued, and to call Dominion Energy if power lines are down in their yard.
9:30 a.m.
Closed roads due to flooding and debris were “widespread” throughout Richland County, county spokesperson Susan O’Cain said Friday morning. Emergency management services across the county asked residents to avoid traveling unless absolutely necessary.
“Please stay off the roads,” Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott said. “We are still experiencing trees and pwoer lines falling. Flooding is occurring throughout Richland County. Please be patient with first responders, they are out there working to protect your life.”
The county administration asked residents to avoid the following areas:
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Blythewood: Clamp Road, Roundtree Road, Wren Creek Drive
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Irmo: Alcorn and Olin Sites Roads, West Ashford Way, Jessie Stoudemayer Road
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Columbia: Heyward Brockington Court, Riley and Barnes Streets
A spokesperson from the Richland County Sheriff’s Department said that traffic was restricted along the following roads due to due to downed trees and power lines: Alpine Road, Blossom Street, Forest Drive, Huger Street, Killian Road, South Beltline and the intersection of Hardscrabble Road and Wilson Street.
Deputies were working to clear tree limbs while waiting on crews from Dominion Energy to fix the power lines, said a sheriff’s department spokesperson.
9 a.m.
The S.C. Department of Transportation reports that as of 8:52 a.m. the Blossom Street bridge remained closed, as was Kilbourne Road over Gills Creek and South Beltline Boulevard between Plowden Road and Shop Road. There was a lane closure on Two Notch Road between Bayview Drive and Shakespeare Road.
Arcadia Lakes Drive was closed in two areas where it passes over water; by Coopers Pond and Arcadia Woods Road, and between Trenholm Road and Sandwood Drive.
In the northeast all of Legrand Road between Rabon Road and North Grampian Hills has been closed, as well as Creekwood Drive and Overpond Road, and Alpine Road near Cardinal Newman over Jackson Creek.
Killian Road and Killian Loop were closed all the way to Wilson Boulevard, as are Folk Road and Lorick Road between Wilson and View Drive.
7 a.m.
In Forest Acres, just east of Columbia, a city spokeswoman said about 15 roads in the city were being affected by downed trees as of 6:53 a.m.
Some of the Forest Acres streets and areas with trees down included Linbrook, Gamewell, Pecival near Overcreek, Trenholm and Churchill, Laurel Springs, Spring Lake, Landers Street, Crystakl Drive, Bethel Church and Storkland.
Meanwhile, the bridge on Forest Drive over Gills Creek remained closed. Forest Acres officials were urging drivers to stay off city roads early Friday morning.
A massive oak tree had fallen and blocked Greene Street on the University of South Carolina campus between Pickens and Laurens streets. The tree was uprooted and lay across multiple cars parked on the two-laned road that is known for its avenue of trees. Students stood near the tree, discussing the mess just after 8 a.m.
“I was up all night, I was absolutely so scared when we lost power,’’ said USC sophomore Ellla McGarrigan, standing outside her home on Greene Street.
Branches lay on the ground throughout the Five Points and Shandon areas in the downtown area of Columbia, including near USC. Gusty winds continued through the early morning. Five Points, known for flooding, was relatively dry in the morning.
Friday’s events followed a watery, flooded Thursday in which creeks overflowed their banks and multiple intersections flooded, including at Whaley and Main Street near USC.
As of 7:17 a.m., there were a host of road closures across the town of Lexington, according to the Lexington Police Department.
Those included 2400 Mineral Springs Road, 5700 Sunset Blvd/US-378, 4801 Sunset Blvd, South Church Street at Roberts Street, Satcher Road at Pond View Lane, and several streets in the Golden Hills neighborhood.
Lexington County offices are operating on a two-hour delay, and the county administration building was without power as of 7 a.m., a county spokesperson said. Richland County offices are closed for the day Friday. The city of Columbia reports trees and power lines are down across roadways and encourages drivers to stay off the roads.
This is a developing story. Check back for details.
Source Agencies
