Thousands without power as Tropical Storm Elsa moves through South Carolina

Thousands of South Carolina residents woke up Thursday morning without power as Tropical Storm Elsa moved across the state.

As of 7:30 a.m., at least 18,768 customers in South Carolina had reported losing power.

Outages were reported across the Midlands as the storm continued to dump rain on the Columbia area.

“We are experiencing widespread outages throughout our service territory due to Tropical Storm Elsa. Thank you for your patience as crews work diligently to restore power as quickly and safely as possible,” Dominion Energy said in a message to customers.

There were 433 customers without power in Lexington County, and 334 more in Richland County, according to Dominion. That was an improvement, as 1,475 Richland County customers reported being in the dark at 6:15 a.m., according to WIS.

The Electric Cooperatives of South Carolina reported 64 of its 6,182 outages were reported by Midlands customers. Most of the outages reported by Santee Cooper (1,626) and Duke Energy (1,865) were in other areas of South Carolina, where the majority of their customers live.

To report an outage, customers can go online or call:

▪ Dominion 888-333-4465

▪ Electric Cooperatives of South Carolina 803-796-6060

▪ Santee Cooper 888-769-7688

▪ Duke 800-769-3766

On Tuesday, Gov. Henry McMaster and the state Emergency Management Division warned South Carolina residents to prepare for the storm. That included bracing for the possibility of losing power.

This is a developing story, check back for updates.

This story was originally published July 8, 2021 at 7:50 AM.

Noah Feit

The State

803-771-8435

Noah Feit is a Real Time reporter with The State focused on breaking news, public safety and trending news. The award-winning journalist has worked for multiple newspapers since starting his career in 1999. Support my work with a digital subscription