MYRTLE BEACH, SC (WBTW) – Thousands of people are still without power in North and South Carolina after Hurricane Matthew knocked down trees and power lines.
“There is no real planning once you lose the power,” said Andrea Minahan. She lives in the Beachwood community off South Kings Highway in Myrtle Beach where residents were still waiting for the power to come back on . “Candles and your flashlights come out but what can you do with them? You just sit and wait and that’s what we did.”
Santee Cooper spokesperson, Nicole Aiello, said they know it’s frustrating when you don’t have power and have brought in crews from all over the country to help get it back on.
“We have crews as far away as Texas coming to help us out and we have additional crews coming,” said Aiello. “We have a lot of boots on the ground.”
Santee Cooper even had helicopters in the air on Sunday morning.
“They were actually flying our transmission lines so they could see the damage that was on the ground,” Aiello added. “We do that so we know where we actually need to plan to go in and make those adjustments and to make that restoration.”
Minahan said it’s frustrating when the power goes out, but she’s glad she and her husband are still alive after sleeping on the opposite side of their house. She slept on the couch and he slept on the lounge because they were worried trees next door would fall.
“I felt so unsafe about that tree,” said Minahan. I expected that it would come down.”
Electric companies say to make sure you report outages and do not assume they know about them.
For a list of power outages and when they could be restored click here.