‘There are lots of areas across the South Carolina Upstate and North Carolina mountains where we’re going to have to completely rebuild parts of our system, not just repair it.’

Duke Energy restored power to more than 1.1 million Carolinas customers impacted by Helene, less than 48 hours after the storm devasted parts of the region. About 904,000 customers – 508,000 in South Carolina and 396,000 in North Carolina – remained without power as of Sept. 29. Nearly all these outages were in the western portions of each state.

Nearly all customers outside of upstate South Carolina and western North Carolina should have had power restored at some point yesterday. Restoring service to the majority customers in the upstate of South Carolina and the North Carolina mountains is expected by Friday, except for areas that are inaccessible, are dependent on infrastructure that has been destroyed or are unable to receive service.

As crews continue to assess the situation, updates will be provided to customers regarding the status of their power restoration. These are continually updated and can be found on Duke Energy’s Outage Maps tool. Customers also can enroll in Outage Alerts to get information about area outages and restoration efforts via text message, voice message or email.

“Based on what we can see on the ground, from helicopter and by drone, there are lots of areas across the South Carolina Upstate and North Carolina mountains where we’re going to have to completely rebuild parts of our system, not just repair it,” said Jason Hollifield, Duke Energy storm director for the Carolinas. “And there are stretches of damage that we still can’t even assess due to mudslides, flooding and blocked roads.

“Our teams of lineworkers and other storm responders will continue to work with local and state officials to gain access to the hardest-hit areas so we can do what our customers and communities expect from us – safely and swiftly get their power up and running.”

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For more on hurricane season and the utility industry, see how Duke Energy is strengthening the grid,  ask yourself if you are making these heat related illness mistakes, and make sure you are stocked up on the must haves for storm season.