Duke Energy Responds to Storm, Safeguards Community

Duke Energy crews restored power to more than 380,000 of the nearly 461,000 customers impacted by a two-day early February storm that included tornadoes, heavy winds and record rainfall across the Carolinas.

A total of 49,000 customers – 37,000 in North Carolina and 12,000 in South Carolina – remained without power as of 5:30 p.m. on Feb. 7. More than 4,600 Duke Energy workers and contractors made repairs across a wide area of the two-state region. Duke Energy sustained damage to its utility poles and power lines mostly caused by wind-driven downed trees.

Crews replaced more than 400 damaged utility poles as well as damaged power lines and transformers throughout the region. In Kings Mountain, North Carolina, powerful winds toppled four large power transmission towers as shown in a video. In turn, more than 150 workers replaced the heavily damaged steel structures.

North Carolina's hardest-hit counties included Durham, Franklin, Mecklenburg, Orange, and Wake. South Carolina's hardest-hit counties included Anderson and Spartanburg.

"This was an intense and highly destructive storm that coupled strong, fast-moving winds with heavy rainfall," says Jason Hollifield, Duke Energy's incident commander for the Carolinas. 

Both Charlotte and Greenville-Spartanburg, South Carolina, set all-time February records for most rainfall in a 24-hour period: 3.16 inches in Charlotte and 5.36 inches in Greenville-Spartanburg.

Following the storm, Duke Energy urged customers to focus on general safety by abiding by safe work practices at duke-energy.com/safety-and-preparedness/storm-safety. In addition, the utility offered a video demonstration on how to stay safe aroud power lines. Click here to see the video.