GREENVILLE, S.C. (WSPA) – South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster gave an update on the state’s response to Hurricane Helene Sunday afternoon.
McMaster, along with SCDOT secretary Justin Powell, SLED Chief Mark Keel, and an official from Duke Energy, spoke during a news conference at Greenville Downtown Airport.
“We want everyone to be careful,” McMaster said. “We don’t need anymore tragedies.”
According to McMaster, Hurricane Helene’s impact on the Upstate was one of the most shocking disasters that have occurred.
“In this particular case, the Upstate has not seen anything like this. If not ever,” McMaster said.
25 deaths have occurred in South Carolina from Helene, according to McMaster.
Six people died in Spartanburg County , five in Greenville County, four in Anderson County, four in Aiken County, three in Saluda County, two in Newberry County, and one in Chesterfield County.
“We have people that are here [to help], others that are coming,” McMaster said. “We have the team, we have the equipment and the federal government is helping as well. The National Guard is going to supplement the work being done by the State Law Enforcement Division. It’s just going to take time.”
SCDOT crews are clearing the roads, starting with highways. They said that they’re working, slowly but surely, to return power.
Mike Callahan, South Carolina president for Duke Energy, said Sunday that the damage to their infrastructure in the state is “unprecedented.”
Duke Energy said that they expect power to be restored to a majority of customers by Friday evening, with the exception of area which are inaccessible or unable to take service.
“That doesn’t mean your power will be out until Friday,” Callahan explained. “It means the very last customer we can restore might be out by Friday but we will see many more customers come online well before that.”
Duke Energy said nearly 6,000 lineworkers and support personnel are on the ground and more are arriving to support their restoration efforts.
Laurens Electric said Sunday evening that they have restored power to 21,219 of their members.
They said they have 300 lineworkers out in the field as of Sunday afternoon with more on the way from other states.
In an Update posted online Sunday, Blue Ridge Electric said more than 328 poles have been broken in their system and that it takes three to four hours for a crew to replace a single pole.
“I can assure everybody there is a major sense of urgency on the part of Blue Ridge Electric and that sense of urgency will stay through until the last member is on,” said Zach Hinton, chief of staff and senior vice president at Blue Ridge Electric Cooperative.
McMaster also dismissed rumors that South Carolina power crews were sent to Florida ahead of the storm.
“I don’t know how that got started but no, there’s no truth to that,” McMaster said, reiterating the need to get information from official sources to avoid “misunderstandings.”
Chief Mark Keel, with the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, said that they “are not going to tolerate any lawlessness in our communities.”
Keel also said that SLED will remain in the Upstate until everything returns back to normal.
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