Duke Energy restoring power to remaining 26,000 customers after repairing nearly 1.8 million outages in Carolinas

- Company expects to restore 99% of customers by Sunday night

- Some outages in N.C. cities of Jacksonville, Morehead City, New Bern will linger into Monday

- A few thousand customers will not be able to receive power and will require repairs and inspections

- Situation at Sutton plant in Wilmington, N.C., remains stable

News provided by

Sep 21, 2018, 18:07 ET

CHARLOTTE, N.C., Sept. 21, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Duke Energy crews today focused on the remaining 26,000 customers without power as of 4:30 p.m., after restoring nearly 1.8 million outages in North Carolina and South Carolina during the past week in the aftermath of Hurricane Florence.

Duke Energy expects to restore power to 99% of customers whose properties are able to receive power by Sunday at 11:45 p.m.

See the latest map for estimated power restoration times by specific location. The latest outage numbers can be found here.

Almost all of the remaining impacted customers are located in North Carolina's coastal and inland areas that experienced severe flooding, multiple road closures and significant structural damage.

'We'll stand by these communities'

"We greatly appreciate the ongoing patience of our customers as our crews have worked as quickly as possible to safely restore power following this extremely powerful and damaging storm," said Duke Energy incident commander Howard Fowler. "We'll stand by these communities until everyone's power is restored."

"We're also very thankful for the kind words and other acts of kindness expressed by hundreds of customers to our workers in the field to show their gratitude during the power restoration process," Fowler said.

Situation at Sutton plant remains stable

Meanwhile, the situation remains stable at Duke Energy's L.V. Sutton plant in Wilmington, N.C., where Cape Fear River flooding conditions caused breaches in the cooling lake dam surrounding the cooling lake and caused the company to shut down the 625-megawatt natural gas plant located there. See news release issued earlier today.

Meter box damage might delay service

Estimated power restoration times apply to customers whose homes and businesses did not experience flooding or other damage to their meter box or electrical wiring – both customer-owned – which might prevent electric service restoration due to safety reasons.

For the safety of customers and the public, when a home's electrical service or equipment is damaged or flooded, Duke Energy will either disconnect the service or remove the meter. These steps will allow a customer-hired licensed electrician to safely and more quickly make necessary repairs. Once repairs are complete, an inspection by local officials is required. Duke Energy will reinstall a meter once the property passes the local inspection passes.

Communicators posting local updates

Duke Energy communicators have been posting the latest local information about power restoration at Hurricane Florence Journal: Reports from the field. Today will be their last entry.

The communicators also are posting on Twitter:

Jeff Brooks – @DE_JeffB

Grace Rountree – @DE_GraceR

Ana Gibbs – @DE_AnaGibbs

Chris Rimel – @ChrisRimel

More information about the company is available at duke-energy.com. The Duke Energy News Center includes news releases, fact sheets, photos, videos and other materials. Duke Energy's illumination features stories about people, innovations, community topics and environmental issues. Follow Duke Energy on Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook. (NYSE: DUK).

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SOURCE Duke Energy