Power outages force thousands of Midlands residents to start day in the dark
Thousands of Midlands residents woke in the dark Monday morning as power outages were reported across the region.
Strong winds and heavy rains from severe thunderstorms that rolled through the area likely caused more than 40,000 blackouts across the Midlands.
At 10 a.m., Dominion Energy said 23,208 blackouts were reported in the Columbia/Lexington area, nearly 3,000 more than were reported at about 7 a.m. Another 19,014 outages were reported in the Midlands by the Electric Cooperatives of South Carolina, about 5,000 fewer than had been confirmed three hours earlier.
Across South Carolina, more than 99,000 outages had been reported by those power companies, along with Duke Energy and Santee Cooper. There were more than 127,000 statewide outages reported at about 7 a.m.
Information when all of the blacked out customers will have power restored was not available, but it won’t be easy to do with strong winds forecast to continue throughout the morning.
A wind advisory is in effect for the Columbia area until 2 p.m., according to the National Weather Service.
The forecast says to expect strong southwest to westerly winds of 20 to 30 mph, with gusts around 50 mph.
Gusty winds will blow around unsecured objects, and tree limbs could be downed, the National Weather Service said. Isolated downed trees and more power outages are possible because of the winds, along with saturated ground from recent rainfall, according to the National Weather Service.
The outages could cause issues for drivers making the morning commute.
High winds and a loss of electricity can cause traffic signal lights to go on flash or out completely, the Lexington Police Department warned. Drivers are asked to be alert and cautious, although several crashes were reported on Interstate 26 and Interstate 20 before 6 a.m., according to the South Carolina Department of Transportation.
This is a developing story, check back for updates.
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This story was originally published January 3, 2022 at 7:16 AM.
