On Wednesday, Governor Nikki Haley updated the public on the winter storm that’s hit the entire state of South Carolina. According to Haley, this storm appears it could be worse than the storm of 2004 that left 200,000 people without power—some for up to a week.
“We have certainly hunkered down. Team South Carolina is hard at work and I’m incredibly proud of the work that they are doing,” said Haley. “We are continuing to see a major snow storm in the upstate. We’re seeing snow and ice here in the midlands. We’re seeing a lot of wind down in the lowcountry.”
As of 11 a.m., Haley reported that there were at least 82,000 people statewide without power and that number is expected to grow.
“The wind is what’s really causing us a lot of problems because that is leading to the ice buildup and fallen debris,” stated Haley. “The goal is to get people back up as soon as we can. We do ask for everyone’s patience. It is incredibly important that if someone has an outage don’t assume that they know that you are out. You need to call your utility company. You need to let them know.”
Haley added that there are 1,500 maintenance workers on the road statewide, plowing snow and trying to keep the roads clear of debris.”
“We have had 4,400 tons of salt delivered up until today,” Haley said. “We’re working through Thursday and have enough for Friday should we need it.”
The governor reported that the state currently has 354 officers on the road.
“We have already had two accidents involving officers. I would remind everybody to stay off the road. If you get on the roads, your speed has to be slow,” said Haley.
She confirmed that the storm already caused one fatality on I-95 after a woman couldn’t slow down fast enough.
“We also had an accident on I-26,” the governor added. “We have 125 national guardsmen out there with wrecker crews helping and on standby as we need them.”
Some counties are also opening shelters. There are 12 open statewide so far.
All bridges statewide remain open except for the Ravenel Bridge due to the icy conditions.
“We have gone on and requested a federal emergency declaration, and that really is more precautionary just in case we need generators, MREs, water,” said Haley. “We haven’t asked for anything yet.”
