Severe storms knocked out power this week to more than 415,000 Duke Energy customers in the Carolinas as high winds downed trees and power lines.
Crews have made tremendous progress, restoring more than 365,000 customers as of 1:30 p.m. Aug. 8, with fewer than 50,000 outages remaining. Restoration efforts were continuing today and tomorrow.
Duke Energy storm officials expect power will be restored to the majority of remaining customers tonight. However, due to extensive damage, restoration in the hardest hit areas will extend into Wednesday. Estimated times of restoration will be provided directly to customers who are still without power via outage alert texts or at duke-energy.com/outagemap.
“Last night’s severe storms impacted a large portion of our territory, but our incredible crews were prepared and have made steady progress,” said Jason Hollifield, Duke Energy’s Carolinas incident commander. “I want to thank our customers for their patience and understanding as our crews work to safely restore power as quickly as possible. We will continue our efforts until everyone is restored.”
In addition to making repairs, Duke Energy crews are surveying the extent of damage to utility poles and power lines. Damage assessment is an important part of the power restoration process as it helps determine where the company will deploy its workers, equipment and other resources.
Duke Energy focuses on restoring power in a sequence that enables power restoration to public health and safety facilities and to the greatest number of customers as safely and quickly as possible. The company will repair major power transmission lines, damaged substations and other large-scale electrical equipment. Crews can then work on repairs affecting individual neighborhoods and homes. Click here for information on how Duke Energy restores power.
