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Date Published: January 28, 2004
Storm delivers knockout punch
50,000 without power in Sumter, Lee, Clarendon
Keith Gedamke / The Item
A pair of swans swim past icy branches on Tuesday afternoon at Swan Lake-Iris Gardens.
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By JON FOX
Item Staff Writer
jfox@theitem.com
Nearly 50,000 residents in the tri-county area are still without power following the winter weather that hammered South Carolina on Sunday and Monday, and regional power companies say the outages could continue until Friday.
Starting early Sunday and continuing through Monday, freezing rain glazed trees with a thick coat of ice. As overburdened limbs snapped and fell to the ground, power lines were broken, leaving tens of thousands of residents in the dark.
In Sumter, Lee and Clarendon counties 49,610 customers of the three regional power companies were without electricity Tuesday afternoon. Even with contract crews and out-of-state work teams brought in to repair the damage, representatives said residents might have to wait until at least Thursday for a return to normalcy.
“It’s the hardest this system has been hit since Hugo,” Sherri Woodward of Black River Electrical Cooperative said.
Repair crews were only just beginning to get a handle on what was a one-step-forward two-steps-back battle. “They’re making a little bit of headway,” Woodward said, adding that as soon as one power line would go back up two more would be damaged by limbs that continued to fall.
Woodward said damage to the system extended beyond simply snapped power lines. “Transformers blowing left and right,” she said, describing the extensive damage.
Representatives with Santee Electric said they were dealing with downed and damaged poles that were taxing resources. The 11,000 customers in Clarendon County will likely have to wait until Thursday afternoon before the situation is remedied.
“We’ve got a lot of big poles down,” spokeswoman Elissa Swicord said. “We’re really stretched thin.”
Progress Energy, the largest provider in the area, has had to bring in repair vehicles with tank treads to reach some downed lines.
“We’ve had to call in some track vehicles because the rubber wheels weren’t cutting it,” Rick Kimble, a company spokesman, said.
More than 24,000 Progress Energy customers in the area are without power in what Kimble said is likely to be a “multi-day event.”
Nearly all of the company’s almost 6,000 customers in Clarendon County have had their electricity cut.
Reluctant to give a date for the end of the outages, Kimble said it could be as late as Friday before most people have their power restored.
“We don’t have a specific time frame because we are still not out of the woods,” he said.
Local emergency and medical services were taxed by both the slick conditions and the loss of power.
Sumter County Emergency Medical Services pulled in employees from other shifts to cope with a deluge of storm-related calls. James Compton, public information officer with Sumter County EMS, estimates his staff ran upwards of 75 calls between 8 a.m. Monday and 8 a.m. Tuesday. He said he believes the total number related to icy conditions could approach 150.
“Basically we just doubled up our manpower and all piled up together,” Compton said.
Instead of the normal four ambulances on the roads, Sumter County EMS beefed up the fleet to eight with reserve vehicles. But even with the extra personnel and trucks, Compton said, EMS has been running full bore since the onset of the winter weather.
Accidents on slick roadways and residents left without power and dependant on electric-powered medical devices have represented the majority of the calls, Compton said.
Sloppy secondary roads and downed power lines have made for time-consuming round trips. “Response time to the calls and back are taking a long time,” Compton said.
Situations in Lee and Clarendon counties were similar with EMS either calling in extra personnel or prioritizing calls to keep on top of the increased volume.
The Sumter County Fire Department ran 110 calls Monday, dealing with minor structure fires and downed power lines.
Some of the fires were sparked by live wires and others by residents turning to novel means to heat homes, Lt. Brian Horton of the Sumter Fire Department said.
Generators kept electricity flowing where uninterrupted power is absolutely urgent. “We were without regular power for quite a few hours,” Tuomey Regional Medical Center spokeswoman Brenda Zilch said.
From 9:15 a.m. until 2:15 p.m. Tuesday, the hospital engaged its generators to keep the power flowing, Zilch said. Backup systems picked up the slack without a hitch, she said.
For those feeling the effects of the outages and without the benefit of generators, two shelters have been opened.
Ken Warren, a volunteer at the Red Cross shelter at the Sumter County Parks and Recreation Department on Haynsworth Street, said about 35 people were registered to stay the night by about 5 p.m. and more were expected as temperatures dropped.
“We figure about 20 more will come in as it gets dark and their power’s not back on,” he said.
The second shelter, run by the Salvation Army, is on Kendrick Street.
Clarendon County Director of Emergency Services Anthony Mack said the county has three shelters open for residents.
Two of the shelters are located at Scott’s Branch High School and the National Guard Armory on Raccoon Road. The third, located at Lake Marion Nursing Home north of Summerton, is for displaced residents with special medical needs.
As shelters were set up to accommodate residents without power, those who tried to check into local hotels found they were too late.
Area hotels were already packed with out-of-state utility workers and residents who fled dark homes early.
“Between us and the Sleep Inn, we’ve probably turned away about 500 people,” Barbara Dees, front desk manager at Comfort Suites, said Tuesday. “We’ve been booked up since yesterday.”
Staff writers Sharron Haley and Krista Pierce contributed to this report.
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February 17, 2004
