Restoration efforts continue to focus on emergency situations such as downed power lines and restoring the "backbone" of the power delivery system, such as major circuits and substations. This enables the company to restore the largest number of customers more quickly.

The northern part of Duke Power’s service territory – in particular, Durham and Chapel Hill, North Carolina – suffered the most severe damage to electric equipment. Fallen poles, downed trees and downed electrical lines are extensive and will require rebuilding of some areas of the system.

The company projects that 90 percent of the outages will be restored by Wednesday evening, Dec. 11. 

  “We understand the inconvenience customers are experiencing, particularly during the cold weather,” said E. O. Ferrell, senior vice president of electric distribution for Duke Power. “We’re optimistic that with Saturday’s forecast for milder weather and less windy conditions, we’ll continue to make good progress in our power restoration efforts. We sincerely appreciate our customers’ patience.”

More than 10,000 employees, contractors and neighboring crews are dedicated to the power restoration efforts. While the most progress is made during the day and evening hours, Duke Power continues to work into the night and early morning hours to restore power.

On Thursday, Dec. 5, more than 1.2 million customers were without power – almost half of Duke Power’s customer base.

Power outages and downed power lines should be reported using the 1-800-POWERON

(1-800-769-3766) telephone line. If a customer has reported an outage, it isn’t necessary to call again unless the customer’s power remains off when a neighbor’s power is restored.

Major areas affected as of 8:30 p.m.:

SATURDAY, DEC. 7, WE WILL PROVIDE UPDATES ON OUR MEDIA OUTAGE UPDATE LINE AT 704-382-8333 ON THE FOLLOWING SCHEDULE:

7:30 a.m.

11 a.m.

4:30 p.m.

9:30 p.m.

PLEASE PRESS OPTION 1. THIS OPTION WILL ALSO ALLOW YOU TO LEAVE A MESSAGE.

Duke Power, a business unit of Duke Energy, is one of the nation’s largest electric utilities and provides safe, reliable, competitively priced electricity to approximately two million customers in North Carolina and South Carolina. Duke Power operates three nuclear generating stations, eight coal-fired stations, 31 hydroelectric stations and numerous combustion turbine units. Total system generating capability is approximately 19,300 megawatts. More information about Duke Power is available on the Internet at: www.dukepower.com.

Duke Energy is a diversified multinational energy company with an integrated network of energy assets and expertise. The company manages a dynamic portfolio of natural gas and electric supply, delivery and trading businesses – meeting the energy needs of customers throughout North America and in key markets around the world. Duke Energy, headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., is a Fortune 500 company traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol DUK. More information about the company is available on the Internet at: www.duke-energy.com.