Aynor feels Idalia’s punch with downed trees, flooding and power outages

One of Horry County’s smallest communities took a big hit from Tropical Storm Idalia, giving Aynor residents a long night as power lines snapped and streets took on water.

Tom Pennigton looked across the front yard of his Oak Street home, relieved that a massive tree fell that came down overnight landed about four feet from his porch.

“Usually when the power goes out here, it’ll flicker, go on, and flicker again. There, it went out all of a sudden and you heard a thud,” Pennington said.

Immediate estimates on how damaging Idalia was were not available, but evidence of its destructive path were easy to see, from the high school’s flooded out parking lot to cones signaling unsafe roadways.

Crews from Sumter Utilities arrived early in the morning on Aug. 31 to begin line work and pole replacements, while state Department of Transportation signs along U.S. Highway 501 leading into the town warned drivers of potential flooding and hazardous conditions.

As of 8 a.m. Aug. 31, 155 people were in the dark, according to Duke Energy’s outage map.

This story was originally published August 31, 2023 at 9:31 AM.