TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2014
75 CENTS
Historic storm’s effects linger across tri-county
SERVING SOUTH CAROLINA SINCE OCTOBER 15, 1894 3 SECTIONS, 22 PAGES | VOL. 119, NO. 106
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Crews work to clear debris from the road on Thursday, after an ice storm left half of Sumter without power.
Some local customers remain in the dark; ice creates potholes
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BY BRISTOW MARCHANT bmarchant@theitem.com
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The snow has melted and the lights have come back on, at least for most people in the tri-county area. But many are still dealing with the lingering effects of last week’s winter storm. Thousands are still without power in parts of Clarendon County, almost a full week after the storm knocked out electricity across much of the state. And locally, the ice that once blanketed the roads is now opening up potholes as it melts. While power was restored during the weekend to most Duke Energy Progress customers and Black River Electric Co-op. members in Clarendon and Sumter counties, many customers of Santee Electric Co-op. in the southern parts of Clarendon County are continuing to deal with
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widespread outages, with restoration work for some members likely to continue for the rest of the week. “This is the worst I’ve seen it since Hurricane Hugo,” said Sonny Sanders, trustee for Santee District 1, which includes much of Clarendon. As of late Monday, 2,620 Santee members in Clarendon were dealing with outages, out of 14,000 outages across the co-op’s coverage area, including Florence, Georgetown and Williamsburg counties. Sanders said some 400 contractors are working with a goal of restoring power to 90 percent of the coverage area by Thursday. Most of those customers have been without electricity continuously since the storm struck Wednesday. “We are very concerned about those who
SEE STORM, PAGE A8
‘We are very concerned about those who are in less-than-good health and the elderly during extreme cold weather conditions. Living in homes without electricity is miserable.’ SONNY SANDERS Santee District 1 trustee
JADE REYNOLDS / THE SUMTER ITEM
Thad Kennedy, front, sales associate at the Wesmark branch of Simpson Hardware, talks to Bryan Fain about what kind of fuel to put in his new chainsaw. Fain said he was picking up the equipment Monday to deal with debris from last week’s ice storm.
Cleanup stalls for some as chainsaws sell out BY JADE REYNOLDS jade@theitem.com Whether you’re a do-ityourselfer or more likely to call in the professionals, tree limb removal has been in high demand in the tri-county the last week. “We haven’t stopped since it started,” said Mickey Barnes, president of State Tree Service. “We’ve worked around the clock until Friday and 16 hours a day ever since. We’ve probably
had over 250 customers’ calls since Wednesday. Normally we have around 50, and we’ve had six crews with Black River (Electric Coop.) and two crews with S.C. Highway Department in Sumter.” Others have been waiting to purchase a chainsaw to tackle the job. Simpson Hardware on Wesmark Boulevard had sold out of that piece of equipment halfway
SEE CLEANUP, PAGE A8
Sumter heating donations down at time of greater need BY JACK OSTEEN jack@theitem.com With what was called the worst ice storm in more than a decade, virtually all Sumterarea residents were in need of some kind of assistance last week. And, with only $400 worth of donations coming in, primarily because of the horrific
weather, it will be even tougher than usual to tend to area residents’ needs. In fact, Salvation Army social worker Pamela Lassiter showed up to work Friday morning with folks lined up outside waiting for assistance. “We have more than 100 families in need who already have their names on our list and will be helping as fast as I
can,” she said. Lassiter wants to remind residents she’s the only one writing vouchers for heating assistance. She understands
why people can get frustrated, but Lassiter wants to assure the public all the money coming in to The Sumter Item is being used for this type of assistance. Lassiter also wants to remind residents they are still taking applications for the free smoke detectors, which include delivery and installation by the Sumter Fire De-
partment. Go by the local office to fill out an application. Founded in 1969, the Fireside Fund collects money for those Sumterites who need help with heating costs, including past-due electric bills and vouchers for kerosene and wood. The Sumter Item collects the money, and The
SEE FIRESIDE, PAGE A10