 Owing to its unusually large windfield, Irene affected long stretches of South Carolina coastlines with gusts and sporadic heavy showers, even though it remained offshore.Gale-force winds picked up through the Lowcountry during the afternoon of August 26, with a gust of measured at a coastal marine observing site on Folly Island.Scattered power outages left over 4,000 residences in the dark, mostly due to toppled utility poles.