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More than 200,000 households and businesses in the state of Palmetto were without electricity Thursday morning, while Hurricane Dorian continued its slow progression to the coast of South Carolina.
Dominion Energy reported more than 129,000 outages in the state around 6:15 am.
Most of the blackouts occurred in Charleston County, where more than 77,000 customers were without electricity, according to a map of blackouts updated by the utility's electricity utility. There were more than 26,000 customers without electricity in Dorchester County and more than 4,000 in Berkeley County.
On the coast, more than 16,000 people were without electricity in Beaufort County.
The Awendaw-McClellanville-Consolidated Fire District reported that the power was shut off at Awendaw and that their plants were running on generators.
The power is off at Awendaw, the stations run at the generator.
– PIO AMFD (@AMCFD) September 5, 2019
All in all, the breakdowns on Dominion's service territory extend from Hilton Head to Mount Pleasant.
Other utilities and power co-ops also felt the effects of the Dorian gusts on Thursday morning as they crawled along the coast of South Carolina.
More than 52,000 electricity cooperative customers, mostly in South Carolina's coastal counties, were traveling through the storm without electricity.
Santee Cooper, who serves customers in Berkley, Georgetown and Horry counties, has reported 42 of her customers without electricity. And Duke Energy Carolinas, which serves other parts of the Pee Dee, has had more than 1,200 outages reported at 10 am Thursday morning.
All utilities and co-ops in South Carolina have put in place workers and contractors to deal with power outages and power lines that went down as Dorian headed for the coast.
These crews were out Thursday morning to restore some of the electricity consumed during the night, but as the storm neared, many utilities had to stop using their bucket trucks in high winds.
Mollie Gore, spokeswoman for Santee Cooper, said the utility pulled the crews back as the winds rose and the eye of the hurricane was parallel to the coastline. Many of its customers are located along the coast near Georgetown and Myrtle Beach.
Duke and Dominion were unable to use their bucket trucks when gusts accelerated. Utilities do not put linemen in the wind faster than 35 miles per hour.
Duke's territory is more inland than Santee Cooper's. But until the winds clear, the crews could only accomplish a lot, said Ryan Mosier, spokesman for Duke. The same was true for Dominion.
To report a power failure, contact the utility to which you are paying your electricity bill.
In South Carolina, it's Santee Cooper, one of the 20 power co-ops, Dominion Energy or Duke Energy.
Santee Cooper customers can call 1-888-769-7688.
Cooperative clients can find the right number to call at http://www.ecsc.org/content/reporting-your-power-outage
Dominion Energy customers can call 1-888-333-4465.
Duke Energy customers can call 1-800-419-6356.
reach Gregory Yee 843-937-5908. Follow him on Twitter @GregoryYYee.
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