Duke Energy still working to restore power after Wednesday storms

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Governor Pat McCrory declared a State of Emergency for Forsyth, Gaston and Mecklenburg counties Thursday.

Duke Energy is continuing to work to restore power to thousands of customers. Some people are not expected to get power back until Friday night.

Duke Energy said its crews have been working hard to restore power but it’s taking longer than many people expected.

“Our first responders, emergency managers and meteorologists deserve our gratitude for keeping us informed and safe throughout the storm. Once again, our team has proven its professionalism and dedication to keeping our citizens safe," said Governor McCrory.

Trees remain down across Charlotte and power remained out for a second night for some customers.

Duke Energy said high winds overnight kept them from being able to make as many repairs as crews hoped.

Duke Energy crews made significant progress Thursday restoring customers’ power in the wake of Wednesday’s major windstorm in North Carolina and South Carolina, the energy company said in a news release.

As of 4:45 p.m. Thursday, a total of about 20,000 Duke Energy customers were without power (17,000 in North Carolina, 3,000 in South Carolina) -- down from a combined peak of 127,000 late Wednesday afternoon.

Duke Energy had the number of outages down to 850 by noon Friday.

Some customers in certain hard-hit areas across the Carolinas might not have their power restored until late Friday, due to significant tree damage to power lines.

Duke Energy expected to complete power restoration to five North Carolina public schools -- two in Morganton, two in Gastonia and one in Charlotte -- Thursday evening.

“We saw winds over 35 mph so we were not able to put our crews up in elevated bucket trucks to make repairs,” said Duke spokeswoman Meghan Musgrave.

In addition, Duke said numerous small pockets of outages have been challenging to get to. The result is that many customers may not have power back until sometime Friday.

It wasn’t just homes that were dealing with the outages. Eastway Middle School and Briarwood Elementary canceled classes Thursday because there was no power. Both will be back open for students Friday.

On Randolph Road, Charlotte Surgery Center was closed too after a tree across the street took down power lines when it toppled. Surgery for 26 patients had to be postponed and more may be coming.

"We are on standby. They’re telling us maybe tomorrow night around 10 o’clock is the earliest it’s going to be to get power back on. We may be canceling tomorrow’s surgeries as well,” said Lance Hopping.

Thursday afternoon winds had died down enough for crews to be able to use bucket trucks and the number of outages went down. But some customers were still concerned they could be out of power for a second night. 
 
"I was upset," said Yvette Hayes. "We have to stay another night with this?"

The National Weather Service reported 131 wind damage reports across the Carolinas Wednesday.

Part of a busy road in Myers Park remained blocked more than 14 hours after strong winds brought down a massive tree across the road.

The tree crashed down just before 1 p.m. Wednesday on Queens Road near Henley Place, blocking the southbound lanes heading towards South Park.

Homeowner tells me a woman was jogging when the tree fell down near her. She avoided it. @wsoctv pic.twitter.com/xP3ehMEKml

Crews will be back out on Queens Road to clear the tree from the roadway, but expect that part of the road to be shut down until noon.

Overnight, crews were able to reopen Wilkinson Boulevard after it was shut down for most of Wednesday because a power line fell and poles we're leaning towards the road.

Many homeowners were waking up Thursday, dealing with damage from fallen trees.

Firefighters responded to a large tree that had fallen on a home on Wensley Drive early Thursday morning. The tree fell in the backyard across the roof of the house. Part of the roof actually collapsed but fortunately nobody was hurt.

The tree uprooted in the backyard. The part of the roof has collapsed. People inside are okay. @wsoctv pic.twitter.com/TaQ5W9Y0Qw

Another huge tree fell across three front yards on Laburnum Street in the Elizabeth neighborhood around 9 p.m. Wednesday. Channel 9 spoke with one woman who was home at the time the tree fell on her yard.

"Everyone's good, our house is fine,” said Megan Milner. “I think it scraped the gutters and my car is totaled. But it could have been a lot worse, thankfully everyone is OK which is wonderful."

Talked to a woman who was home at the time the tree fell, thankfully no damage to house but car is totaled pic.twitter.com/jPYTEUKNDZ

A big tree took down power lines in the Grier Heights neighborhood off Randolph Road.

The outage caused by that tree shut down the Charlotte Surgery Center across the street where 26 surgeries had to be canceled Thursday and rescheduled.

A lot of the road problems were because there was not only snow but sleet mixing in.  
 
Road crews had to keep going back over some areas because of blowing snow Thursday.  
 
The mountain weather had traffic coming to a standstill at some of the higher elevations of Avery County, where some drivers were putting cables on their tires today.

"I spent a lot of time in the mountains in the Sierras in California.  So I'm used to this, but it has been a long time since I've seen it," visitor Leif Norstrand said.
 
The Department of Transportation scrambled to clear roadways near the Tennessee line, where several inches of snow fell last night and today. 
 
Some business owners in Banner Elk welcome the return of winter after spring storms raced through the high country 24 hours ago.
 
"This is what brings people to the mountains to ski and snowboard and be in this winter wonderland, and we missed out on that in November and December," Business owner Larry Jones said.
 
The cleanup continues in the northern foothills, where strong winds brought down trees and forced Caldwell County to call off classes at two schools near Lenoir.  With the power off, they moved the food out of West Caldwell High this morning.

Power was restored Thursday night at Gamewell Elementary and West Caldwell High School, Caldwell County Schools officials said. They will operate under regular hours Friday.

Bus drivers said the last 24 hours have been an adventure.

"Tree here, a tree there. We couldn't go up on this road here or go out on that road there," bus driver Dan Taylor said.

One couple in Long View told Channel 9 they were inside their home when a tree came crashing down on it.

"I heard a loud crack,” said Paul Perkins. “The wind was blowing all the trees over and the tree just snapped and all I heard was crashing."

Avery County Schools are on a 3-hour delay Friday morning while Watauga and Ashe County Schools are on a 2-hour delay.

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