The couple lives in Hilton Head, South Carolina, but returns to their Cincinnati-area home twice a year to visit family and attend to medical needs, said Levin, who worked at Procter & Gamble for 34 years before retiring in 2012.

That visit happened to coincide with the arrival of Hurricane Helene, he said.

Neighbors had been watching the Levins’ South Carolina home, he said, adding that there had been no property damage so far.

Levin said he has been keeping an eye on news reports about the hurricane’s impact in the south.

“I was surprised at the number of deaths,” he said.

“I didn’t think it would be this bad”

Over in northern Kentucky, it took nearly 24 hours for residents of Florence, just off Dixie Highway, to see someone from the electric company on their street.

Tiffany Renaker, 37, said she and her family lost power around 11:30 a.m. yesterday. Duke Energy sent messages to her and other residents that power would be restored by 3:30 p.m. yesterday. That was pushed back to 6:30 p.m

Then Renaker said she hadn’t heard from the utility until today. There is no estimate yet as to when she and others on Patricia Street will have power.

About five Bowlin Group LLC crane trucks are now parked along the road near her home. Crews are cutting trees near downed lines and handling spare parts.

“I didn’t think it would be this bad,” Renaker said of the storm, which as of Saturday afternoon has left more than 1,000 people in northern Kentuck still without power.

In the meantime, she, her husband and their 13-year-old son play the board games “Monopoly” and “Sorry” and eat at IHOP and McAlister’s.

Their neighbor Marv Dryer, 52, allowed them to use his generator to charge their devices.

He bought it last night after the power didn’t come back on at 6:30 p.m. and he hadn’t heard from Duke Energy.

It was the last one on the shelf at Sam’s Club.

He thought it would be wiser to pay a few hundred dollars for a generator than to let a few hundred dollars’ worth of food go to waste in his refrigerator.

“That’s bulls — for not updating it,” he said of Duke Energy’s outage website. “And they don’t give updates.”

Strong winds and rain hit the Greater Cincinnati area

Remnants of Hurricane Helene are moving into the region on Friday and are expected to bring damaging winds and heavy rain.

Bryer, who is in a wheelchair, said he couldn’t sleep because he couldn’t turn on his hospital bed. It’s “flat as a pancake” because he can’t plug it in when his fridge and a light are connected to his generator.

But he and his adult son could heat coffee and tea and prepare food with their air fryer.

Kevin Vogelpohl, deputy director of Boone County Emergency Management, said crews have been working to clear roads and restore power since yesterday’s storm.

He said the area was lucky – there were no reports of flooding or displacement. He said there were some reports of trees on cars, but no injuries.