Power restored to many throughout Richland County, more storms to come

Although power has been restored to many throughout Richland and Lexington counties Friday morning following a second round of severe thunderstorms that swept across the Midlands Thursday, more storms could be on the way.

An outage map on South Carolina Electric and Gas’s website shows that over 400 people in Richland County are without power, while only 5 remain without power in Lexington County. However, at the height of the outages Thursday evening, as many as 3,968 customers in Richland County and 820 customers in Lexington County were in the dark.

The National Weather Service reported 2.5 inches of rain fell Thursday, according to totals gathered at the Hamilton-Owens Airport, with another 1.36 inches falling at the Columbia Metropolitan Airport. The weather service also reports there is a 30 percent chance of storms hitting the Midlands again Friday afternoon, which drops off to 20 percent chance of storms Friday evening.

If added rain falls Friday, Columbia could see even more flooding in areas that were already under water after Thursday’s thunderstorms. Streets were flooded in parts of the Vista and much of Five Points. Police blocked off several intersections.

The Five Points flooding blocked the movement of traffic into and out of the area. The intersection at Woodrow Street and Rosewood Avenue and the one at Main Street at Whaley Street, at the edge’s of USC’s campus, also were blocked by high water.

Heavy rainfall caused sewage overflows into Lake Katherine, Gills Creek, and Rocky Branch Creek at Maxcy Gregg Park near Five Points, the city of Columbia wastewater maintenance division reported.

Wednesday’s severe thunderstorms produced a wide swath of scattered fallen trees across the Midlands, power outages and some downtown creeks spilled out of their banks.

Friday’s forecast again calls for a chance of storms with a 62 percent chance of precipitation. The high temperature is expected to be 90, and the low 73.

This story was originally published August 6, 2015 at 5:38 PM.