624K in SC remain without power after Helene. Here’s when lights could be back on for some

More than 620 thousand South Carolinians continue to wake up in the dark following the devastation of Hurricane Helene.

As of 8 a.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 1, there were 624,382 customers without electricity across the Palmetto State, according to PowerOutage.us, which tracks power outages across the nation.

Dominion Energy, which serves nearly 821 thousand customers in South Carolina, have restored electricity for more than 744 thousand residents. 76,456 customers remained without power Tuesday morning.

As the storm went through South Carolina on Thursday and Friday, about 1.3 million customers had lost power.

Dominion Energy of South Carolina President Keller Kissam said explained why some customers may not have a utility crew in their neighborhood, during a news conference Monday.

“We have to patrol,” Kissam said. “Once we patrol, we put the saw on the bottom of the helicopter, it goes out ... and cuts, and get these trees off transmission (lines).

Kissam said once transmission lines are restored, crews begin working on utility substations.

“Yesterday again, people said, ‘I don’t see any crews in my neighborhood,’ Kissam said during the news conference. “Well, you may live five to six miles away from the substation, and yesterday we worked to get all the major circuits on.”

Duke Energy President Mike Callahan said it expects to have power restored for a vast majority of customers by Friday evening, with the exception to those who are inaccessible or unable to receive service.

Duke Energy serves 835,500 residents in South Carolina. As of Monday, the utility had restored nearly 442,000 customer outages.

The electric coops had as many as 1,900 poles that were snapped and it takes a four-person crew four hours to replace one pole, said Rob Hochstetler, the president and CEO of the Central Electric Cooperative said Monday.

The majority of outrages remain in the Upstate, where Helene hit the Palmetto State the hardest.

Out of the 175,000 Spartanburg County customers tracked by PowerOutage.us, more than 137,000 were still out of power as of Tuesday morning. Meanwhile, 166,945 power customers in Greenville County were still out as of Tuesday morning.

In western SC, Greenwood County remained largely in the dark on Tuesday, with more than 26,000 outages.

Dominion Energy on Sunday released estimated times of restoration of power for its customers in a number of SC counties. Those were:

*Allendale: 11 p.m. Oct. 3

*Bamberg: 11 p.m. Oct. 3

*Barnwell: 11 p.m. Oct. 2

*Beaufort: 11 p.m. Oct. 1

*Berkeley: 11 p.m. Sept. 29

*Calhoun: 11 p.m. Sept. 29

*Colleton: 11 p.m. Sept. 30

*Dorchester: 11 p.m. Sept. 29

*Fairfield: 11 p.m. Oct. 4

*Hampton: 11 p.m. Oct. 3

*Jasper: 11 p.m. Oct. 2

*Kershaw: 11 p.m. Sept. 29

*Lexington: 11 p.m. Oct. 3

*Newberry: 11 p.m. Oct. 2

*Orangeburg: 11 p.m. Sept. 29

*Richland: 11 p.m. Oct. 3

*Union: 11 p.m. Oct. 3

Dominion listed several counties simply as “damage assessment in progress,” without estimated restoration dates, as of Monday morning. Those included Abbeville, Aiken, Edgefield, Greenwood, McCormick and Saluda.

Power for Dominion customers in the Midlands have mostly been restored.

In Richland County, of the 211,676 customers, power has been restored for 202,631. In Lexington County, 21,481 customers remained without power as of Tuesday morning.