Wedding & Event Venue Near Saluda, SC.

Power outages have decreased but some areas continue to struggle following Helene's wrath.

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Some local school districts are changing their plans for the week due to the ongoing problems caused by Tropical Storm Helene's destruction.

Thousands remain without power meaning many cannot get a warm meal or shower. Utility officials have said it could take several more days for the lights to come back on. Particularly hard hit areas include Lexington, Newberry, Saluda, and Richland Counties.

Here are the districts that have announced their plans.

Columbia International University

Classes will resume on Thursday October3.

Fairfield County

Fairfield County Schools have returned to class

Kershaw County

Kershaw County Schools are on regular schedule

Lexington One

Kershaw County Schools are on regular schedule

Lexington Two

Lexington Two schools are back on regular schedule as of Thursday

Lexington Four

Lexington Four has returned to a normal schedule

Lexington-Richland 5

All School District Five schools and offices will operate on a one-hour delay on Thursday, October 3, 2024, and Friday, October 4, 2024.

Midlands Tech

Midlands Tech has returned to a normal schedule

Newberry School District

Schools will remain closed on Thursday, October 3 and Friday, October 4. There will not be any assignments posted for students for these days.

Food pick up sites will continue to be at Newberry High School, Mid-Carolina High School, and the Whitmire Community Center from 11:00 am - 1:00 pm on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.

Buses will again deliver foods to select locations for these days.

11:00-11:30 - Grants, Wise Street, White’s Trailer Park, Pine Ridge Rd. Prosperity

11:45-12:15 - Bethlehem, Newberry Arms, Miller St. Prosperity

12:30-1:00 - Nance Forest, Church St. Prosperity

Richland One

Richland One returns to a normal schedule as of Thursday

Richland Two

Richland Two has returned to a normal schedule

Saluda County

Saluda County Schools will be closed through Friday, October 4 for all students and staff.

At this time, the South Carolina National Guard & Saluda County Emergency Management Division is assisting district leadership in supplying cases of water, MREs (meals ready to eat,) and tarps for those who have roof/home damage. This line begins in the Saluda Middle School car rider line.

Partners throughout our network of Radius Church campuses are supplying school-age children with bags of groceries and grilled chicken meals, while supplies last. Our football players who show for practice today will be fed. This line begins in the Saluda High School faculty parking lot. Please bear to the right if you come for grocery bags and chicken.

In addition, we are hosting our students today who are in need of charging their electronic devices or would just like to get out of the heat and humidity for a while.

Sumter County

Sumter County School District is on normal schedule

As many as 4 million utility customers lost power from Florida to Virginia following Hurricane Helene, according to the National Weather Service and USA Today reports.

In the Upstate, river flood warnings remain until Monday, but flash flood emergencies have ended for Oconee, Pickens, Greenville, and Spartanburg counties, said Clay Chaney, an NWS meteorologist.

Here are wind, rainfall, and river level statistics in the Upstate caused by the storm.

Hurricane Impact:Helene in South Carolina updates: 11 deaths reported in Upstate; thousands without power

River levels around the Upstate from Hurricane Helene

Rainfall totals from Hurricane Helene

How high were wind gusts in the Upstate during Hurricane Helene?

Duke Energy restores power to 723,000, 1 million wait

According to Duke Energy, Hurricane Helene caused more than 1.7 million outages to customers across South Carolina. About 1 million customers in the state are still without power.

As of 5:45 p.m., Duke Energy's outage map shows about 534,000 customers in the Upstate without power.

According to Ryan Mosier, communications lead at Duke Energy, "The damage we are seeing from Helene is historic. Folks who have spent 30-year careers at Duke Energy have never seen anything like this."

There have been no updates on a timeline of full power restoration since Thursday afternoon's press conference alongside Gov. Henry McMaster, where energy company officials across the state said that it is hard to make an exact statement about when households and businesses will have power back, but it could be as late as mid-week.

As of 3 p.m. on Saturday, Duke Energy confirmed resolving more than 723,000 power outages across South Carolina.

Laurens Electric Cooperative restores 25 percent of service area

According to the Laurens Electric outage website, there are still about 44,000 customers without power in their service area as of 3:30 p.m. on Saturday.

The utility had restored about 25 percent of its membership's power by noon.

The cooperative energy service provides power to more than 66,000 members across the Upstate in Anderson, Greenville, and Spartanburg counties. No timeline has been set for when all members will have full service.

Blue Ridge Electric Cooperative expects multiple-day outages

Blue Ridge Electric Cooperative has dispatched 300 crew members and line workers to assess Hurricane Helene damage across Anderson, Greenville, Oconee, Pickens, and Spartanburg counties. Initially, 216 workers were deployed.

The co-op estimates there are more than 289 broken poles in the service area.

Blue Ridge Electric Cooperative provides energy services to customers in Anderson, Greenville and Spartanburg, Oconee, and Pickens counties in the Upstate. There has been no updated timeline from Blue Ridge Electric on an expected full energy restoration for their service area.

Electric Cooperatives of South Carolina: Outages may last a week or longer

In a statement provided by the Electric Cooperatives of South Carolina (ECSC), the western portion of the state should prepare for outages of at least a week, if not longer, as crews repair a mangled power grid.

ECSC also reported that at least 1,400 cooperative power poles were snapped by the storm and require replacement.

"This is not a simple restoration job," said Mike Couick, chief executive of ECSC. "For many areas, particularly in the Upstate and along the western border of South Carolina, co-ops are essentially rebuilding our electric system from the ground up.

ECSC is the state trade association of independent, member-owned electric cooperatives with nearly 2 million members and 20 electric cooperatives. They provide energy to portions of Anderson, Greenville, Spartanburg, Oconee, and Pickens counties in the Upstate.

– A.J. Jackson covers the food & dining scene, along with arts, entertainment and downtown culture for The Greenville News. Contact him by email at ajackson@gannett.com, and follow him on X (formally Twitter) @ajhappened. This coverage is only possible with support from our readers.Sign up today for a digital subscription.

Six people were recently exposed to a rabid calf found in the Midlands, the South Carolina Department of Public Health said Wednesday.

After being discovered in the Prosperity area of Saluda County, the ailing cow was sent to DPH’s lab for testing Sept. 19, and was confirmed to have rabies the following day, officials said in a news release.

The people who came in contact with the calf were told to seek medical care, health officials said. Further information on their conditions was not available.

If untreated, rabies can cause fever, agitation and death, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“It is very important for you to seek medical attention if you have been exposed to a wild, stray, or domestic animal,” DPH’s Rabies Program Team Leader Terri McCollister previously said. “The rabies virus is found in the saliva of infected animals and can be transmitted through a bite, scratch, broken skin, and the mucous membranes of your eyes, nose, or mouth.”

DPH says if you believe that you, someone you know, or your pets have come in contact with the rabid animal, or another animal that potentially has rabies, call the agency’s Public Health Aiken office at 803-642-1687 during normal business hours (8:30 a.m.-5 p.m., Monday-Friday) or after hours and on holidays at 888-847-0902 (select option 2).

“Please report all animal bites, scratches, and exposures to potentially rabid animals to DPH,” officials said.

Additionally, if you think you’ve been exposed to a rabid animal, immediately wash the affected area with plenty of soap and water, officials said.

Livestock are susceptible to rabies, while cattle and horses are the most frequently reported infected livestock species, according to the release.

“Keeping your pets and livestock current on their rabies vaccination is a responsibility that comes with owning an animal. It is one of the easiest and most effective ways you can protect yourself, your family, your pets and your livestock from this fatal disease,” McCollister said in the release.

In addition to the calf, a skunk found in Oconee County also tested positive for rabies on Sept. 20, officials said. No people were exposed to the skunk, but one dog came in contact with it and has been quarantined, as required in the South Carolina Rabies Control Act.

Since 2002, South Carolina has averaged approximately 148 positive cases a year, DPH said.

There have been 62 cases of rabid animals statewide this year, compared to 78 confirmed rabies cases in South Carolina in 2023, according to the release.

In a breaking news situation, facts can be unclear and the situation may still be developing. The State is trying to get important information to the public as quickly and accurately as possible. This story will be updated as more information becomes available, and some information in this story may change as the facts become clearer. Refresh this page later for more updated information.