ANDERSON, S.C. — The deaths of a 91-year-old man who froze trying to fix a broken pipe and a man who couldn’t get oxygen after the power went out at his home have been contributed to the winter storm in South Carolina, authorities said.
Both men died in Anderson County over the holiday weekend after an arctic blast sent temperatures well below freezing for more than two days, Coroner Greg Shore said.
On Christmas night, Marvin Henley went outside his home to try to fix a broken pipe, Shore said.
Henley came back inside about 10 p.m. to change out of wet clothes and then went back out to try to fix the pipe again. His body was found 16 hours later with his clothes wet, said the coroner, who ruled the death an accident from exposure to the cold.
Elsewhere in Anderson County, Shore said a second man who depended on medical oxygen died when his power went out and he collapsed as he struggled to get a portable oxygen device working on Christmas Eve.
The man couldn’t get the regulator on the machine to work, and Shore said he was listing the winter storm as contributing to his death because the power outage prevented him from getting what he needed to survive.
The Coroner’s Office did not release the man’s name or age.
(WATCH BELOW: Residents brace for bitterly cold temperatures in the North Carolina mountains)
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