Eastern Midlands hoping Hurricane Dorian’s impacts remain mild
The counties of the eastern Midlands and parts of the Pee Dee were spared the brunt of Hurricane Dorian’s long arm. Officials in those counties hope to escape fairly unscathed by the end of the day.
No deaths from Dorian have been reported in Bamberg, Calhoun, Clarendon, Florence, Lee, or Sumter counties.
Those counties are under a tropical storm warning and flash flood watches as of 5:30 a.m. Thursday morning. Forecasters predicted the possibility of 5 inches of rain and sustained winds of 39 mph.
Officials in the counties said rain and winds were minor as of 10:30 a.m. The counties had a few downed trees that were taken care of or in the process of being removed. Conditions have not prevented emergency crews from responding to calls as was the case in Dorchester and other Lowcountry counties.
Almost two hundred people were in shelters throughout the counties, many of them evacuees of coastal regions. Clarendon County had the most reported people sheltered of the eastern Midlands and Pee Dee counties with 87 people staying in emergency facilities, the county’s Emergency Management Services said.
Teddy Wolfe, director of Fire Service in Orangeburg, said the effects of the storm in his county were “no biggie so far.”
Emergency crews in the eastern Midlands and Pee Dee counties didn’t let their guard down before the morning was over.
Clarendon County was dealing with more than 500 power outages, an official said in a statement. More than a thousand outages occurred in Orangeburg and other counties, according to electricity providers. Florence County had fewer than 500 instances of power being out, which accounts for less than 2% of the county’s electric customers, according to county spokesperson Levi James Jr.
They’re not out of the woods yet.
The National Weather Service’s midday update said the area could still get 2 to 4 inches of rain and experience gusts of 55 mph throughout Thursday.
“We’re waiting for the 4 o’ clock peak to see what happens then,” James said.
Emergency crews in the areas are hoping that they continue to have little to report.
“It’s kind of quiet,” said Dwayne Huggins, public safety director of Lee County. “Hopefully it’ll stay that way.”
This story was originally published September 5, 2019 at 12:13 PM.