COLUMBIA, S.C. — Just under a million South Carolinians remain in the dark from Helene's damaging winds, according to website poweroutage.us. Here in the Midlands, the areas impacted the most are Lexington, Saluda, and Newberry.
“I noticed it came off because at first I was sleep, so when the tree had fell that's when everything was flickering," said Columbia resident Latara Smith.
The storm's impact is personal to Latara Smith and her family. A tree fell on her family's power lines Friday morning, leaving them completely without power.
“We had got some ice to put the food in or whatever like that, but you know, no fan, no stove or nothing in there, you know cutting on or nothing. So, we pretty much cook on the grill," said Smith.
Smith situation is especially challenging as she is four months pregnant and has not had a good night's sleep since the storm.
“I usually sleep with my fan on, last night it was so rough for me to sleep. I just know I ‘m not going to be able to do that anymore," said Smith.
Utility crews with Dominion Energy and Midlands Electric Cooperatives are working tirelessly to restore power to customers.
“Our crews are working hard throughout today, throughout the weekend, and we’ll not stop until that last outage is restored," said Matt Long with Dominion Energy.
“We got crews deployed right now their working on that, their working through the night to get the power back on," said Troy Smith with Midland Electric Cooperatives.
Latarah and her family will find another place to lay their heads until the lights come back on.
“We might just go to my grandma house today because we been hearing it might come on Monday, or tomorrow," said Smith.
Both Dominion Energy and Midland Electric Cooperatives advise people to stay away from fallen powerlines because it might still be energized. It could take several days to restore power to some homes.