Thousands without power in York, Chester, Lancaster after Helene hammers Rock Hill region
More than 70,000 customers in York, Chester, and Lancaster counties remained without power Friday afternoon after Helene ripped through the Rock Hill region.
Wind gusts that reached over 40 miles per hour from the dark hours through the early afternoon caused havoc as damage from the storm spread across upstate South Carolina and around the Charlotte area.
Trees were down on roads in Rock Hill, Fort Mill, and other areas from early Friday through the afternoon, although most main roads had been cleared by around 3 p.m. With schools closed but wind gusts still reaching above 30 MPH, emergency officials urged anyone who does not have to be on the roads to stay home until roads are cleared.
Rock Hill had anywhere from five to seven inches of rain from Thursday morning until it stopped early Friday afternoon, city officials said. Fort Mill reported about 5.4 inches near Nation Ford High School, while Indian Land had around 4.25 inches, according to weather and emergency officials.
SC and NC crews work Rock Hill rescue after tree falls on house
Rock Hill, York County deputies and firefighters, and Charlotte Fire Department emergency workers from North Carolina rescued four people from a home on Poinsett Drive in Rock Hill near Celanese Road after a tree fell on the house, sheriff’s deputies and Charlotte Fire said in social media postings.
A man was pinned in the house before crews got him out, Charlotte Fire posted online. The extrication took over an hour. The man gave a “thumbs up” as he was taken out, the fire department reported.
In a separate incident, a Rock Hill woman was hit by a fallen tree from a neighbor’s property, deputy city manager Jimmy Bagley said Friday afternoon. The woman’s husband was able to take the woman to a hospital without the city having to respond, Bagley said. The woman may have a broken arm, he said.
Power outages up from early Friday
Outages stood at around 70,000 at 3 p.m. in the three counties, according to outage maps from Duke Energy, York Electric Cooperative, and the city of Rock Hill. The number rose from around 65,000 at 8 a.m. to about 95,000 at 10 a.m. before numbers dropped as repairs were made.
Fort Mill, Lake Wylie, and Indian Land also were affected by widespread service disruptions in York and Lancaster counties. Western York County also had thousands of outages around York and west of Rock Hill.
Rock Hill had around 3,900 customers without power as of 3 p.m, according to city statistics and Mayor John Gettys. However, that number had dropped considerably from almost 19,000 at 10 a.m., when almost half of the city was without service.
Repairs in Rock Hill to restore all power could take a couple of days because some areas are harder to get to, Gettys said at news conference. The city had crews from the Charleston area and Alabama coming later Friday to assist city crews with repairs over the weekend, Gettys said.
York Electric Cooperative’s outage map showed over 23,000 York County customers without service as of 3 p.m.
The co-op reported around another 1,800 outages for Lancaster and Chester customers.
Repairs are ongoing but no timetable has yet to be released for customers to be back in service, cooperative vice-president Marc Howie said.
Duke Energy reported about 24,000 outages in York County around 3 p.m., according to its outage map.
Another 9,000 Duke customers in Lancaster County lost power, while Chester County had around 8,000 outages.
Trees in roads, Catawba River levels, regional Helene effects
No fatalities were reported in York, Chester or Lancaster counties as of 3 p.m., officials said.
Catawba River headwaters could rise higher than they ever have before, due to heavy rain from Helene. Just before 11 a.m. Lake Wylie sat less than a foot below its full pond, or when a lake starts spilling. Four of six upstream lakes on the Catawba were above their full ponds, some by more than four feet.
Law enforcement reported trees blocking parts of roads into the afternoon, but most were in the process of being cleared, according to the York County Sheriff’s Office. York County Emergency Management was continuing with response and recovery efforts Friday afternoon after the rain cleared, director Chuck Haynes said.
In Charlotte, one person died and another was seriously hurt when a tree fell on a house, The Charlotte Observer reported.
Trees were reported on a few houses in Lancaster County but did not destroy those buildings, said Darren Player, emergency management director.
High winds in southwestern Lancaster County near the Catawba River Friday morning knocked down several trees in a concentrated area off S.C. 200, Player said. Officials from the National Weather Service will likely look in coming days to see if that burst was straight line winds or possibly even a small tornado, Player said.
Nearly a million people around South Carolina were without power Friday morning, The State reported. As of 3 p.m., there were over 1.2 million people statewide without service, according to Poweroutage.us, a site that aggregates outages nationwide.
Helene was downgraded from a hurricane to a tropical storm Friday. The NWS forecast for the area shows a continued flash flood warning through early next week.
This story was originally published September 27, 2024 at 8:45 AM.
