Duke Energy estimates power restoration times for Carolinas customers following Hurricane Florence

CHARLOTTE, N.C., Sept. 17, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Duke Energy expects to restore power to most North Carolina and South Carolina customers impacted by Hurricane Florence by Sept. 26 at 11:45 p.m. ? but the vast majority will be restored sooner.

"We're doing everything we can to safely restore power to every customer as quickly as conditions allow," said Duke Energy incident commander Howard Fowler. "We won't rest until the job is done."

See the latest map for estimated power restoration times, by geographical area.

Duke Energy will send customers ? via text message ? additional information, including updated restoration times, when available.

The estimated times apply to customers whose homes and businesses did not experience flooding or other damage that might prevent electrical service restoration.

Locations impacted by flooding or other damage might require repairs by a licensed electrician and/or inspection by local officials before electric service can be restored.

Repair crews working in hard-hit areas

Duke Energy crews already have restored power to 1.2 million customers of the 1.5 million customers who experienced an outage during the storm.

As of 11 p.m., 223,000 customers ? most of them in North Carolina ? remained without power. The latest outage numbers can be found here.

Many of the remaining impacted customers are located in largely inaccessible coastal areas that experienced historic flooding, multiple road closures and significant structural damage. (See photos under "Photo Downloads" at https://news.duke-energy.com/media-kit.)

Duke Energy (NYSE: DUK) continues to move additional repair crews into those hard-hit areas. More than 20,000 personnel are restoring power across the Carolinas ? the company's largest storm response in the region ever.

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SOURCE Duke Energy