5,000+ without power in York, Chester, Lancaster SC after storm, officials say

Thousands of customers were without power Monday night in York, Chester, and Lancaster counties after a storm with heavy winds and rain pushed through the area, officials and utilities said.

As of around 7 p.m., more than 5,000 customers in the three counties were without electric service, according to outage maps from utilities.

Trees and power lines were down in most areas of York County, said Chuck Haynes, York County Emergency Management Director.

The area is served by three major utilities: Duke Energy, York Electric Cooperative, and the city of Rock Hill utilities.

Duke Energy reported around 1,000 outages in York and Chester counties before 7 p.m., according to the company’s outage map. Many of those were in Chester County, but there were also outages reported near York.

York Electric Cooperative showed about 2,500 outages in the three counties before 7 p.m., with the bulk of those in eastern York County, the outage map for the utility showed.

The city of Rock Hill showed over 1,900 customers out of power before 7 p.m., the city’s outage map showed. Affected areas included northeast and southern parts of the city, the map showed.

The storm knocked out power to tens of thousands of customers across Upstate South Carolina and in the nearby North Carolina counties close to Charlotte, the Charlotte Observer reported.

Flights out of Charlotte Douglas International Airport were grounded beginning at 5:15 p.m. The FAA extended the ground stop to 7:15 p.m.

Check back for updates.