As severe weather rolled through North Carolina on Tuesday afternoon, it knocked out power for thousands of Duke Energy customers — including in Orange and Durham counties.
The National Weather Service issued a severe thunderstorm warning for the community in the early afternoon, with the storm arriving to much of Orange County around 4 p.m. With very high winds, thunder and lightning, and strong rain, residents saw debris and trees blow into different areas.
As of 4:30 p.m., Duke Energy had received outage reports for several Chapel Hill neighborhoods, including downtown Chapel Hill, Southern Village, along North Carolina 54, and in White Cross. Near the county line with Durham, customers in the Falconbridge neighborhoods, along Mt. Sinai Road, and in the 15-501 corridor also reported thousands of outages. The utility company estimated around 60,000 customers suffering outages in Durham after the storm blew through the city and surrounding areas.
Few of the outages had estimated times of restoration, as Duke Energy response crews evaluated the plethora of outages across the state caused by the storm.
The full outage map for Duke Energy across North Carolina can be found here.
Duke Energy customers who lost power can report their outage by texting OUT to 57801, calling 800-769-3766, or sending a message on their website or app. If a power line has fallen or has debris hanging in it, the utility company urges residents to never touch the line or anything in contact with it, and instead calling emergency services and keeping others away until repair crews arrive.
In Chapel Hill, the town government alerted community members to a downed power line blocking Martin Luther King Boulevard between Homestead Road and Estes Drive during the 4 p.m. hour. Travelers using the road were encouraged to detour by using Homestead Road or Estes Drive to avoid using the blocked portion.
If motorists or bicyclists come across a traffic signal that is not working, Chapel Hill Police encourage all road users to treat the intersection as a four-way stop, meaning each vehicle stops at the light and then proceeds based on the order they arrived.
© CopyRights RawNews1st
