South Carolina--The vegetable refrigeration units were off, the greenhouse was dank and warm, and hundreds of tilapia were belly-up Friday morning when City Roots urban farm co-owner Eric McClam discovered his new business had no electricity.

An overnight storm with winds gusting to 60 mph ripped tree branches and popped transformers across the Columbia area, leaving up to 53,000 SCE&G customers in the dark, a utility company spokesman said Friday.

That peak of discomfort had eased by late Friday afternoon to 11,300 customers in Richland and Lexington, including McClam's three-acre farm in the Rosewood neighborhood near Jim Hamilton-L.B. Owens Airport. About 1,100 were in apartment complexes off I-20 and Broad River Road, according to a South Carolina Electric & Gas Co. website that tracks outages.

McClam did not realize until 6:45 a.m. Friday that the power had gone out at the farm, where a year ago he and his father installed a 3,000-gallon pool to raise tiny tilapia fish that were about ready for sale. "We have two employees who live about a block away, and they had power," McClam said, explaining why he was surprised to find the damage.

The tilapia died because of a lack of oxygen that comes from an air diffuser and water pump, he said. The fish were buried on site. "It's basically a mass grave."

He estimates the loss at between $10,000 and $12,000.

City Roots, which opened two years ago, was able to save most of the vegetables by carting some to the nearby Rosewood Market, McClam said. The market agreed to provide space in its refrigerators. The rest of the harvested legumes were stashed in ice-filled coolers at the farm.

But the temperature in the greenhouse where the produce is grown reached 110 degrees as Friday grew hotter, he said. "We're still without power," McClam said in late afternoon, adding that the greenhouse is "kind of smelly, hot and humid."

Elsewhere in the littered two-county area, public employees were removing limbs and trunks from roadways, homeowners were picking up debris, and police were directing vehicles at scattered intersections knotted by darkened traffic lights.

No deaths or serious injuries were reported.

The damage reached the Governor's Mansion. A sport utility vehicle belonging to Gov. Nikki Haley's husband, Michael, was crushed Thursday night when a tree fell. A porch railing and two flagpoles on the mansion also were damaged, the governor's spokesman, Rob Godfrey, said.

The Columbia Fire Department took 134 storm-related calls in a 12-hour period ending at 5:50 a.m. Friday, Chief Aubrey Jenkins said. There were reports of lightning striking homes, downed power lines and toppled tree branches from St. Andrews to Northeast Richland. Firefighters had not confirmed the reports by midafternoon Friday, Jenkins said.

In Richland, the Eastover community was hardest hit, said county spokeswoman Stephany Snowden.

In the small Pine Grove neighborhood near Oak Grove in Lexington County, tree limbs damaged a home and two cars, said Bruce Rucker, the county's public safety director. He said fire officials answered 40 calls in the 24-hour period between 7 p.m. Thursday and 7 a.m. Friday. Dispatchers handled 700 telephone calls between 7 p.m. and midnight when the brunt of the storms had passed.

"We're pretty fortunate not to have anybody injured or to have no significant damage," Rucker said.

SCE&G called in help from Aiken County and Lowcountry crews, utility spokesman Robert Yannity said.

Much of the problem in restoring power is that snapped power poles had to be replaced, he said.

Meteorologist Tony Petrolito of the National Weather Service at Columbia Metropolitan Airport said the thunderstorms blew in from the Upstate about 7 p.m., firing occasional hail. The ice balls were up to an inch in diameter, he said. A straggler storm hit the airport as late as at 8 a.m. Friday as the weather headed south.

Today is expected to be storm-free, hot and sunny, Petrolito said.