COLUMBIA, S.C. — South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster confirmed 25 people have died in the state from Tropical Storm Helene, and he's asking everyone to do their part to keep that number from rising. He also said the effort to restore power is continuing with crews working around the clock.
McMaster gave an update on the state's response to the storm Sunday over at the Aiken Regional Airport, in one of the counties hit hard by the storm. Most of that county's residents remain without power and full restoration may take several more days.
McMaster said one of the biggest safety concerns right now are trees on power lines, which he said is also making it tough for energy companies to restore power. But he said people should never attempt to try and solve the problem but cutting up a tree tangled in lines on their own.
"If there's any chance that there's any sort of wire running under those that debris because you can get shocked and die," he said.
Once the debris is clear, McMaster said, then the power restoration should accelerate.
"We can get in and get [power] to the filling stations and all the stores, all the things are without electricity, including some of the cell towers aren't working," he said. "So we're really in the dark in some places, but it's gonna take patience. But we're getting there, we're making steady progress."
McMaster added that the National Guard is stepping in and helping where they can.
As of late Sunday afternoon, statewide power outages stood at 850,000, down from a peak of nearly 1.4 million, according to PowerOutage.us, a website that tracks utility company outages.
Keller Kissam, the President of Dominion Energy South Carolina, explained the process of restoring power.
"We have to restore transmission," he said. "Then we have to restore the substations. Those are the fence thin areas with the breakers that bring energy to your subdivision. Then we'll focus on the main feeders and we'll get the filling stations, the restaurants, the grocery stores back to turn people's lives back to normal. And then when we finish with that, we'll get down into the neighborhoods as well to get everybody back on."
Kissam has said it could take days for power to be restored to all customers.