Co-ops Evaluating Damage, Navigating Flooding to Begin Restoration
RALEIGH, N.C. (Sept. 27, 2024; 9:30 a.m.) – With heavy rainfall and wind throughout the night and continuing into the morning, more than 139,000 members served by electric cooperatives in western North Carolina are without power Friday morning.
Officials caution this number is expected to grow, as the center of Helene enters the western half of the state, bringing higher wind speeds that can topple trees and pull down power lines.
Widespread flooding and road closures are impacting many parts of western North Carolina; these conditions will cause significant delays in the cooperatives’ ability to access, evaluate and repair damages to the electric system. Co-op members are encouraged to be prepared that power outages could last for several days or more.
“Cooperative crews are working hard to identify outage areas and restore power, but this will take time and patience,” said Lee Ragsdale, senior vice president of energy delivery at North Carolina’s Electric Cooperatives. “Safety is our top priority—for both members and crews—and we are closely monitoring the situation to ensure power is restored as quickly and safely as possible.”
North Carolina’s electric cooperatives urge members to use extreme caution as conditions worsen throughout the day. Flood waters and debris can hide downed power lines. Do not approach any areas where power lines are down, and never touch a downed line. These lines can still be energized and are extremely dangerous.
The storm’s impact is causing delays in outage data communication. As a result, the Statewide Outage Map, may not reflect real-time totals. Outage totals will be updated hourly on the Tropical Storm Helene updates page until the data communication issues are resolved.
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North Carolina’s 26 electric cooperatives collectively serve approximately 2.5 million people in 93 of the state’s 100 counties. For more information, please visit ncelectriccooperatives.com.