Wedding & Event Venue Near Edgefield, SC.

South Carolina EMD Director Kim Stenson said Monday, Oct. 7, 2024, that the public assistance costs — debris, infrastructure damage and emergency protective measure costs — reported by 38 counties totals more than $250 million.

South Carolina, the federal government and nonprofits are teaming up this month to host "one-stop" shops that aim to connect residents and businesses with assistance because of Hurricane Helene.

The described "county days" start this week in the Upstate, and will continue in other impacted parts of the state through the month.

In addition to state officials and nonprofits, the Federal Emergency Management Administration will be on hand to help residents fill out applications for individual assistance.

Representatives with the Small Business Administration will also be present to provide business owners with information about disaster loans, and the state resiliency office will offer case managers to link those impacted by Helene with disaster relief.

Marcia Adams, director of the state Department of Administration, said Monday there also will be other state agencies present to help with mental health assistance, environmental services, resources for seniors, veterans and children and information about insurance and unemployment benefits.

Additional "Team South Carolina" days will be scheduled the week of Oct. 14 and the week of Oct. 21, Adams said. The state's Emergency Management Division, the Office of Resilience and the Department of Administration are working to coordinate days, times and locations, she added.

Many South Carolinians are still dealing with Helene's impact, from damaged homes to power outages.

The state is reporting between 48,000 and 51,000 power outages as of Monday afternoon. So far 29 counties have reported damage to more than 5,200 homes.

Of those, state EMD Director Kim Stenson said 300 have been reported as destroyed, and more than 1,700 have been reported as having major damage. The higher number of reports stem from Aiken, Greenville and Spartanburg counties.

Meanwhile, 16 counties have reported some level of damage to more than 160 businesses.

Stenson said Monday that public assistance costs — that's debris, infrastructure damage and emergency protective measure costs — reported by 38 counties comes to more than $250 million.

Gov. Henry McMaster said Monday that 23 counties are covered for individual assistance: Abbeville, Aiken, Allendale, Anderson, Bamberg, Barnwell, Cherokee, Edgefield, Greenville, Greenwood, Hampton, Jasper, Laurens, Lexington, McCormick, Newberry, Oconee, Pickens, Richland, Saluda, Spartanburg, Union and York counties and the Catawba Indian Nation.

Twenty-nine counties — Abbeville, Aiken, Allendale, Anderson, Bamberg, Barnwell, Calhoun, Cherokee, Chester, Colleton, Edgefield, Fairfield, Greenville, Greenwood, Hampton, Jasper, Laurens, Lexington, McCormick, Newberry, Orangeburg, Oconee, Pickens, Richland, Saluda, Spartanburg, Union, Williamsburg and York counties and the Catawba Indian Nation — are covered for public assistance.

More counties could be added, state officials said.

Brett Howard, the federal coordinating officer with FEMA who is working with South Carolina, said the quickest way for people to apply for federal assistance is either online at disasterassistance.gov, calling their hotline at 1-800-621-3362, or applying through FEMA's app.

"This is assistance for homeowners, for renters to help with ... temporary repair of your home," Howard said.

Howard said FEMA also has disaster assistance teams throughout impacted counties in South Carolina. Those teams, Howard added, are working in coordination with state officials.

Howard said FEMA has already approved millions of dollars in assistance.

But if someone gets a denial letter in the mail, Howard urged people to read the letter carefully and avoid throwing the letter away. The reason for denial could be as simple as someone forgot a number in their Social Security number or the zip code is missing, he said.

"Call us," Howard said. "We will work with you through this situation."

Howard also sought to tamp down on misinformation that's flooded social media about FEMA assistance, saying that FEMA officials are working in coordination with state and local officials.

"We don't freelance," Howard said, adding FEMA does not go around asking for money.

"We bring you the money and the resources," he said.

Agencies at "Team SC" events:

Source: S.C. Governor's Office

Slowly but surely power is being restored across Aiken and Edgefield counties as crews continue to arrive in the wake of Tropical Storm Helene.

Dominion reported 7,078 of its 62,038 Aiken County customers remain without power as of 3 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 6. In Edgefield County, 1,138 out of 7,565 customers are without service.

Dominion's president said it now has one lineman in the area for every seven households.

Aiken Electric Cooperative is also working to restore power for its members.

The outage map indicates 6,000 of Aiken Electric's 36,861 members in Aiken County remain without power as of 3 p.m. p.m. Oct. 6. In Edgefield County, 3,900 of its 7,227 customers don't have service.

A "tent city" has emerged in Graniteville as Aiken Electric houses hundreds of linemen.

Dominion Energy is estimating that 85% of its customers in Aiken County now power restored and that number will improve to 95% by Wednesday, Oct. 9, at 11 p.m. In Edgefield County, it estimates that 85% will have power by 11 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 6 and 95% by Wednesday, Oct. 9 at 11 p.m.

Aiken Electric began notifying customers Oct. 2 of estimated restoration times. To add your phone number, click here for instructions on how to add or update your contact information.

For those who don’t have a current phone number or no phone number listed on their account, they will be included in the next round of text alerts as the system updates. Once signed up, customers will receive routine updates based on assessments and progress being made.

Aiken Electric said restoration times could increase or decrease based on this information. If you don’t receive the first alert, you can visit our storm updates page for a list of estimated restoration times by area.

The Salvation Army has two dinner feeding sites that will be open Sunday, Oct. 6, from 5 p.m. until depleted.

1. KJ's in Aiken - 1048 York St. NE

2. KJ’s in Edgefield- 155 Carolina Square

The South Carolina Department of Insurance is offering consumers assistance and remote claims services along with insurance carriers on Monday, Oct. 7, and Tuesday, Oct. 8, in Aiken.

It will be open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. both days at the Aldi’s Parking Lot, 2510 Whiskey Road.

Representatives from State Farm, USAA, Allstate, South Carolina Farm Bureau, Auto-Owners, Travelers, Progressive, Nationwide and Heritage Insurance Companies will be in attendance along with members of the S.C. DOI’s Office of Consumer Services to help consumers file claims and answer insurance-related questions.

The SC DOI’s Insurance Fraud Division will share information to help consumers prevent being scammed by bad actors who often show up after a disaster.

Consumers are encouraged to contact the South Carolina Department of Insurance’s Office of Consumer Services at 803-737-6180 or visit doi.sc.gov for more information and for helpful tips on navigating the claims process.

Flood insurance policyholders should contact their agent or the NFIP directly to report flood claims at 1-800-427-4219 or visit www.floodsmart.gov for additional information on the NFIP claim process. Suspected insurance fraud should be reported to 1-888-95-FRAUD.

The South Carolina Forestry Commission has revised its State Forester’s Burning Ban – effective at 6 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 3 – to include 15 counties: Abbeville, Aiken, Anderson, Cherokee, Edgefield, Greenville, Greenwood, Laurens, McCormick, Newberry, Oconee, Pickens, Saluda, Spartanburg and Union counties.

A State Forester’s Burning Ban prohibits outdoor burning outside of all unincorporated areas (outside of city limits). This includes yard debris burning, burning for forestry, wildlife or agricultural purposes (prescribed burning), campfires, bonfires and other fires for recreational purposes.

CORRECTION: Due to an editing error, a previous version of this release included incorrect rainfall totals. Please note the new numbers below if you are planning coverage.

Media contact: Stephen Fastenau, Office of External Affairs, 803-240-4385, fastenaus@dnr.sc.gov.Oct. 4, 2024All of South Carolina is free of drought after Helene’s rains.The S.C. Drought Response Committee on Thursday downgraded the drought status for nine counties and maintained the no drought status for all other counties. A stationary front followed by Tropical Storm Helene brought rain statewide and heavy rain to the Savannah River Basin, Midlands and Upstate. While the committee generally avoids making two-level declaration changes, there was overwhelming support that there is no signs of drought in the six counties — Abbeville, Anderson, Edgefield, McCormick, Oconee and Pickens — that had been listed in moderate drought and the three counties — Aiken, Greenwood and Laurens — that were in incipient drought. According to S.C. State Climatologist Hope Mizzell, Helene produced the third-highest rainfall ever in South Carolina from a tropical cyclone or their remnants since 1956 (see table), with 19.69 inches reported at Jocassee 8 WNW, an Upstate weather station. The second-highest tropical-induced rainfall occurred just six weeks before during Tropical Storm Debby, with 22.02 inches reported in Moncks Corner. Some of the other preliminary double-digit heavy rainfall totals from Helene (Sept. 26 – 29, 2024) include:15.42 inches at Slater-Mariett 6.4 NW (Greenville County); missing one day of observations13.41 inches at Anderson 5.0 NW (Anderson County); missing one day of observations13.08 inches McCormick 12.9 E (Edgefield County)12.75 inches Sunset 0.5 NW (Pickens County); missing one day of observations11.24 inches at Iva 6.4 SSW (Abbeville County)10.76 inches at Columbia 2.1 NNW (Richland County)10.49 at inches Laurens 1.1 SSW (Laurens County)Well above normal rainfall from Hurricane Helene has led to high streamflow levels across much of the state, according to Scott Harder, hydrologist with the S.C. Department of Environmental Services. Fourteen-day average flows are well above the 90^thpercentile at many streamflow gauges in the Savannah and Saluda basins.Upper Savannah reservoirs also have largely recovered after experiencing well above normal inflows. The dramatic improvement in reservoir and streamflow levels supported removing all counties out of a drought designation.Tommy Mills, S.C. Forestry Commission law enforcement chief, provided an update on the State Forester’s Burning Ban for 20 counties. The ban is not in place due to drought concerns, but solely due to the Forestry Commission’s limited ability to respond to wildfires while staff are assisting with storm response and recovery, Mills said.The committee held a moment of silence during the meeting for everyone affected by the devastating weather event. The next Drought Response Committee meeting is scheduled for Nov. 6, 2024. South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, Rembert C. Dennis Building1000 Assembly Street, Columbia, SC 29201Department Phone Numbers

No remaining drought in SC following Helene’s rain added by admin on October 6, 2024 View all posts by admin →

|Updated: Oct. 3, 2024 at 10:02 AM EDT

EDGEFIELD, S.C. (WRDW/WAGT) - The devastation from Hurricane Helene reached every corner of the CSRA.

In Edgefield, one family home passed down from decade to decade is a total loss.

The house has been in the South family name since the 1960s.

The house is filled with incredible memories for the family, but now, filled with debris and powerlines as Hurricane Helene destroyed much of the area.

There are splintered tree branches piercing through the ceiling of a home that has been passed down for generations.

In Aiken, thousands of line workers and crews continue to work around the clock to help restore power in some of the hardest-hit communities.

“Oh goodness, memories. We were here when our youngest son was born,” said Ruby Smith.

Lloyd and Ruby South built the home in Edgefield County, living right down the road from their loved ones.

“We used to call it ‘the Ponderosa’ because all of our family moved out here,” said Lloyd.

The decades of heartwarming memories made the moment they saw their long-time home for the first time since Hurricane Helene unbearable for the Souths.

“I just sat down on a tree over there and cried, that’s what I did. I was overtaken. I got ahold of myself and said well that’s just the way it is, life goes on, you got to go on,” said Lloyd.

The home is now owned by their granddaughter, Madison and her husband Braeden Furgeson, who weren’t home when the hurricane ripped through the area.

The couple described their emotions when they came back to see the damage.

“Mine was gratitude. I was just grateful that we weren’t in the house when it happened,” said Braeden.

Now, they’re scrambling to find a place to call home for the time being.

As different organizations are setting up their relief events and getting people their necessities, the American Red Cross is also here to help people where they can.

“Everything that had power is already full and everything that was getting power was already booked,” said Braeden.

While a big part of their lives has been crushed by mother nature, it’s clear the home isn’t the only thing passed down in the South family.

They have the ability to look on the bright side, even in the darkest of times.

“We’re recovering, grateful that we are still here talking to y’all,” said Lloyd.

Madison and Braeden said: “The community is so strong here and I am so grateful for that. A lot of people stop and say they will pray for us, which is great. Thankfully, no one is hurt.”

Copyright 2024 WRDW/WAGT. All rights reserved.

Edgefield, S.C.

In our Inside Look stories, The State's journalists take you inside places around South Carolina that you maybe haven't seen before. Read more. Story idea? statenews@thestate.com.

Garret Hammond wakes on a cot in an office-turned-barracks, where he has lived for the past several days. Outside, the area around his western South Carolina hometown is rubble.

Power lines hang over yards like weeping willows, wooden beams are splintered and strewn across the roads. And tens of thousands of people are still without power here.

“I never expected to see anything like this,” said Hammond, who has lived in the small town of Edgefield, a stone’s throw from the Georgia border, all his life. For the last four years, he’s worked as a lineman for the Aiken Electric Cooperative, which serves Edgefield, doing standard repairs to utility poles and power lines. But now, the aftermath of Hurricane Helene has created a much larger job, with much higher stakes.

Statewide, nearly half a million power outages were still active as of Wednesday morning. Almost all of those outages are in the western portion of the state. At noon Wednesday, Edgefield County still had 8,875 customers without power, and Aiken County had 50,300, according to poweroutage.us.

In the small Edgefield community, an estimated 300 utility poles operated by the electric cooperative were torn up, snapped in half or otherwise decimated.

Hammond said it could take weeks before his own power at home is turned back on, and so he and many of his colleagues spend their nights in accounting offices and training rooms at the electric cooperative’s headquarters, where at least there are hot showers. He expects to be at it for a while.

The sun bounces off Ellis Crawford’s white hard-hat as he tilts his head up toward Hammond, who is bobbing up and down in the basin of a bucket truck, maybe 30 feet up in the air.

“I don’t understand why it has that give,” Crawford says to another lineman, Dilan Havird, as they inspect the condition of the power line Hammond and a second aerial lineman are installing.

“They’re going to have to untie it,” Havird responds, practically shouting over the constant rumble of the large trucks elevating his coworkers.

They’re trouble-shooting. The crew has to ensure the newly placed power cable is tight but not taut, flexible but not firm. It has to dangle at just the right height.

“Hold up,” Crawford shouts up at Hammond, before once again assessing the position of the draped cable. “Alright, you look pretty good.”

Hammond fastens the cable and then clips it, letting the excess fall to the earth below.

Today, yesterday, tomorrow, and beyond, this four-man Aiken Electric Cooperative crew will work between 16- and 17-hour days, doing largely the same thing all across Edgefield and Aiken counties.

“I’m supposed to be at the beach,” joked Havird, who celebrates his third wedding anniversary Wednesday. But instead of a sunny vacation, Havird is baking under his hard hat.

Despite the joke, he’s grateful. His is one of the lucky homes in Aiken with power. So he’s pulled out air mattresses, cots, couches and anything he can turn into a bed to let other linemen, family and friends stay at his house.

For Crawford, this storm is nothing new. He’s worked as a lineman for almost 20 years, previously in the Lowcountry and briefly in Florida. He rates this storm a 5 out of 10, but for the Aiken area, he knows this level of damage is unheard of.

And while by some measures Helene can’t compare to the devastation left by Hurricane Hugo, by others it was worse.

Hurricane Helene caused the deaths of at least 36 people in South Carolina — that’s one more than the 35 deaths caused by Hugo in 1989.

The damage across South Carolina is severe, but the linemen say in Edgefield it’s like nothing they could have imagined. The Electric Cooperatives have hired hundreds of contract-linemen from out of state. People are here from Maine, Virginia, Alabama, Texas.

More than 500 contractors were working with the cooperative in the Aiken area to help restore power by Tuesday night. By this weekend, they expect to have a total of 1,000 people in the field as more contractors arrive in the state.

A spokesperson for the Aiken cooperative said rather than repairing damage, the utility is having to rebuild most of the power system.

“What you’re not seeing is just as alarming,” as the visible damage, Aiken Electric Cooperative CEO Gary Stooksbury wrote Tuesday on Facebook. “Underground cables flooded beyond repair, entire substations submerged in water, transformers crushed by debris, and access routes completely washed out. The destruction from Hurricane Helene runs deep — more than what meets the eye.”

That deep damage means that while power is expected to be restored in the Midlands and other parts of South Carolina this week, the linemen working in Edgefield, who also don’t have power at home, say for them it could be weeks.

All of the linemen who spoke with The State said they feel the love from their community, despite online groaning about the pace of their work.

“I’ve never really thought about it the way I think of it now,” said Kord Williams, who has worked for the electric company for four years. Before, it was a job but he didn’t think beyond where he was assigned to go one day or the next. Now, he knows better.

A red Chevy stuffed with people rolls up to the men. As they pass the crew they shout praises and “We love you” and then they even stop the truck to fist-bump Crawford for a job well done.

Williams recalls how recently they restored electricity in a nearby neighborhood. “They’re just outside throwing their hands up” saying thank you, he said.

Online, residents have speculated that power companies sent linemen to Florida before the storm, leaving South Carolina without their expertise when the storm hit. The electric cooperative and Dominion Energy both adamantly deny that accusation. The linemen say they aren’t frustrated to hear residents complain — most of the men are also tired of not having power. But they ask for patience.

It takes about three hours to replace an electrical pole, not including the time it takes to reinstall the cables, connect the transformer and do it all safely and without cutting corners.

The crew doesn’t break until they’re satisfied with the job they’ve just done. When they do finally take lunch, they’ve been working for at least seven straight hours.

Sometimes they get a bag lunch from the cooperative, but today volunteers have dropped off a case brimming with foil-wrapped hot dogs and a separate cooler topped with Gatorade.

It’s more than the crew can eat. One of the men walks over to the house next door, behind where they just finished replacing the power line, and invites a family staying there to share lunch. The house is without power and the family is grateful for hot food.

A boy fills his arms with hotdogs until he can’t carry any more. As he walks away, Havird shouts to him, “We’ve got like 50 Gatorades here.”

“50?” the boy asks, intrigued, then walks over and adds the sports drink to his stack.

Tonight, this home will have power.

This story was originally published October 2, 2024, 1:11 PM.

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