Hurricane Irma: S.C. Reports Two Fatalities, Almost 200K Without Power

COLUMBIA, SC -- Hurricane Irma’s overnight push through South Carolina led to two fatalities and almost 200,000 residents waking up to power outages, according to state emergency officials.

S.C. Gov. Henry McMaster also said Tuesday morning that he had lifted evacuation orders for all barrier islands as of 9:15 a.m.

By 6 a.m. Tuesday, Irma was about 65 miles southwest of Atlanta, moving north-northwest at 16 mph. The storm killed at least nine people in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina and dozens in the Caribbean and Cuba with a death toll of 42, according to ABC News. Almost eight million homes and businesses were left without power, a number amassing to about two-thirds of the entire state of Florida.

State officials say at least two fatalities in South Carolina Monday were storm related. Charles Saxon, 57, of Calhoun Falls, S.C., was killed by a falling tree. A 21 year-old driver driving with a Florida registration was also killed in a car accident on Interstate 77.

As Irma made its move north Monday, South Carolina opened 24 general population shelters around the state Sept. 11, serving 1,059 occupants. Many of those shelters were expected to close Sept. 12, and by Tuesday morning at 9:45a, 18 shelters remained opened with 805 occupants.

RAW: Irma Floods Charleston With Ocean Water

Tuesday morning, there were more than 197,000 electric meter outages reported in South Carolina, according to state officials. Around the state, 162 roads -- mostly secondary roads -- remained closed due to standing flood water. Most of those road closures were in the upstate, according to Department of Transportation officials. Overall, however, there was very little damage to the state’s infrastructure, SCDOT said.

“We’re very happy the hurricane went somewhere else,” S.C. Gov. Henry McMaster said at a Sept. 12 press conference. “We were very fortunate to escape the main blast.”

While the brunt of the storm has passed through the Carolinas, the National Weather Service warns that there’s still more potentially hazardous weather in store for western North Carolina and the upstate of South Carolina on Sept. 12.

“Isolated thunderstorms may be embedded within the remaining rain bands of Tropical Depression Irma moving north through the area,” NWS said Tuesday morning “Cloud-to-ground lightning and locally heavy rain are possible with these storms. A brief damaging wind gust or two could occur during the showers, even if thunder is not heard.”

Patch Editor Geoff Dempsey contributed to this article.

Photo via Pixabay

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