News

Half the county remains without power

A mobile substation in Swanannoa. [DUKE ENERGY PHOTO]

By Lightning Reports, Published: October 5, 2024

Nearly half of Henderson County homes and businesses remained without power Saturday nine days after Hurricane Helene ripped a wide swath of destruction through the county.

The hurricane damaged a significant portion of the electric system in the North Carolina mountains and South Carolina upstate including transmission towers, substations, utility poles, power lines and other major equipment. In some areas where power outages remain, floods have destroyed roads and bridges, Duke Energy said in a news release Thursday evening.

The utility missed its goal of restoring power to 90 percent of customers by Friday night. In Henderson County, 33,640 out of 69,300 customers had no power. Other outage totals were: Buncombe 74,293 out of 149,159 customers; Polk, 2,865 out of 8,681; Transylvania, 4,980 out of 16,771. In all 272,819 Duke customers in the Carolinas remained without power.

“We continue to work with a variety of stakeholders to get critical assets — like our vehicles, workers, poles, transformers, wire and more — to the areas where we are restoring power for our customers,” Jason Hollifield, Duke Energy’s storm director for the Carolinas, said in a news release. “We know partnerships and collaboration with local, state and federal agencies are critical — and will continue to be — as we collaborate with these communities to rebuild.”

In another update Duke said, "As we gradually gain access to the hardest hit areas in the Carolina mountains and foothills we continue to uncover extensive damage to our grid infrastructure."

Line workers can't reach many outages because of roads are impassable.

“The North Carolina Department of Transportation is in constant communication with Duke Energy and offering all available assistance to restore power as quickly as possible,” said Joey Hopkins, secretary of the North Carolina Department of Transportation. “Communities in Western North Carolina have been hit hard and every day without electricity is difficult. Repairing damage to the grid and restoring power is an urgent priority and we will continue assisting Duke Energy with their efforts.”