CHARLOTTE, N.C., Oct. 16, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Duke Energy expects
to restore power by tonight to most of the remaining North Carolina and South Carolina customers impacted by Tropical
Storm Michael late last week.
Less than 8,000 customers in
North Carolina's Caswell, Guilford, Rockingham and Wake counties remained without power as
of 9
a.m. today. Duke Energy plans to restore power to
most customers, whose properties can receive power, by 11:45 p.m.
Crews have restored power to more than 1 million Carolinas
customers since the powerful storm struck the region last Thursday
– one day after ripping through the Florida Panhandle, initially as a category 4
hurricane packing 155 mph winds.
More than 10,000 repair workers, including power line
technicians and other specialists, have been working long hours in the Carolinas.
The largest number of Carolinas outages occurred in North Carolina, where damage to Duke Energy's
electric system was widespread and extensive.
To date, crews have replaced nearly 800 utility poles and 350
transformers, and restrung 2,300 spans of power line. (One span is
the length of a power line between two utility poles.)
"We thank all of our customers for their patience during the
past five days," said Duke Energy incident commander Rufus Jackson. "It's been a challenging
month-long period for our customers and employees, who have endured
back-to-back historic storms. We appreciate everyone for working
together to get our communities back to normal. We'll continue
working as quickly as possible until everyone's power is safely
restored."
Duke Energy asks customers without power to turn switches to the
"off" position on as many appliances and electronics as possible.
That step facilitates power restoration by reducing the immediate
demand on power lines when power is restored. Once power is
restored, the company asks customers to wait a few minutes before
turning on those appliances and electronics.
Power restoration information, by geographical zone, is
available at:
https://www.dukeenergyupdates.com/michael/carolinas/hurricane-michael-restoration-in-the-carolinas
Latest outage numbers can be found here. Information about how
to report a power outage also can be found at that link.
24-Hour: 800.559.3853
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SOURCE Duke Energy