RALEIGH, N.C., March 8, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- North Carolina's electric cooperative line crews worked through the night and have worked all day to restore power to as many electric cooperative members as possible. There are currently 31,800 outages down from a peak yesterday of 62,600 outages. Davidson and Orange Counties are currently experiencing the most outages.
Outages were caused by ice and sustained high winds, which brought down trees and limbs. Downed trees have impeded travel in many areas, and debris must be cleared from the system before crews can reconnect power. These tasks could extend for several days. Electric cooperatives from the state's hardest hit areas have brought in reinforcement crews from unaffected co-ops to restore power as quickly as possible.
If you are taking advantage of the warmer weekend temperatures, we'd like to remind you to never touch a downed power line; they can still be energized and therefore dangerous or even deadly. If you are cleaning up from the storm, do not attempt to cut trees that could be in contact with a power line. No one except a trained line technician should handle or be near a downed power line.
Electric cooperative members should call their cooperative directly if they experience a disruption in power. For phone numbers to report outages and the counties served by each co-op, refer to www.ncelectriccooperatives.com/co-ops/coopList.htm.
North Carolina's electric cooperatives serve more than 2.5 million people in 93 of the state's 100 counties.
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