GREENVILLE — By midnight Oct. 4, Duke Energy hopes to get power back to the majority of its 438,000 customers across Upstate South Carolina, but a lengthy recovery effort from Tropical Storm Helene is going to make that timeline difficult.
Four days after the storm devastated the region's power grid, government officials, schools and even other electric companies who buy power from Duke Energy are waiting on thousands of Duke's crews to make progress before they can do much more.
Littered around Greenville and the Upstate is a common sight: trees and branches blocking roads, wrapped in power lines. County and city officials have said they are waiting for the lines to be removed so they can get rid of the debris and make the road passable.
But not only is there damage to more than 6,000 Duke Energy poles across the region, more than a hundred of Duke's pivotal high-voltage transmission lines were damaged by the storm, company spokesman Ryan Mosier told The Post and Courier.
In the power grid, high-voltage lines carry power from plants like the Oconee Nuclear Station to smaller substations, which can each serve thousands of people.
Then, main distribution lines connected to a substation serve essential facilities like hospitals and large communities. Main lines are connected to individual lines for homes and businesses. Repairs are being made from the top-down: fixing the foundational high-voltage lines upstream before working downstream to homes, Mosier said.
"When you're talking about rebuilding the system, you're talking about multiple pieces of interconnecting infrastructure that you just have to replace," Mosier said. "And it's not a simple repair."
Mosier said Duke Energy has close to 6,000 people — line workers, vegetation managers, administrators and more — mobilized in South Carolina at 10 staging sites, including one visibly spanning Haywood Mall's parking lots in Greenville.
Blue Ridge Electric Cooperative, which supplies power to more than 73,000 customers in five S.C. counties, said it is going to take time for its crews to replace hundreds of its own broken poles.
"On average, it takes a four-man crew about 3-4 hours to replace one broken pole," Blue Ridge spokesman Riley Morningstar said in a news release. "Replacing three poles over a 12-hour shift is a full day’s work for a single crew. Replacing four is a feat in these circumstances."
Several substations that serve the cooperative were restored overnight Sept. 30, bringing power back online for a few thousand members.
The damage to the Upstate's power grid has been unlike anything seen before, Morningstar said.
Officials are planning for the worst.
Greenville County is handing out free ready-to-eat meal rations and bottled water at McAllister Square each day from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. To reduce the number of car accidents at traffic lights that don't have power, generators have been installed at major intersections in Greenville. Shelters are open for people with medical needs or no suitable shelter.
Jessica Stumpf, deputy director of Greenville County Emergency Management, acknowledged it is going to take a long time to get everyone's power restored.
"Prepare to support yourself again for the next five to seven days," Stumpf said.
Stumpf wouldn't comment on whether she thinks Duke Energy's targeted Friday timeline was realistic, deferring to company officials to make that determination.
Schools in Greenville, including the entirety of the public school district and Furman University, remain closed until Oct. 4. Furman said in a statement that Duke Energy's schedule is "unpredictable," but their crews would not be able to restore power to campus until Wednesday, Oct. 2, at the earliest.
Mosier said within the next few days Duke Energy will reach out to customers via email, text or phone call to give them a specific timeline for when their power might be restored.