Cleanup continues after severe storm felled trees in Charlotte. Thousands without power
About 15,000 customers are still without power in Mecklenburg County early Monday evening, and at least 9,000 more are without electricity in neighboring counties, following a strong, early morning storm, according to Duke Energy.
The storm — which consisted of heavy rains, gusts and thunder and lightning — was strong enough to also knock down trees around the region, including some that fell onto roads and into homes and businesses.
As of early Monday evening, North Carolina had around 86,000 outages, down from 240,000 outages during the morning, according to the N.C. Department of Public Safety.
The outages come at a time when many people in the Carolinas are working at home because of the novel coronavirus pandemic. Both North and South Carolina have issued stay-at-home orders to help prevent the spread of the virus.
The storm turned deadly in parts of the Carolinas, killing at least five in people.
In North Carolina, a 61-year-old woman in Davidson County died when a tree fell into her home, according to The (Raleigh) News & Observer.
At least four deaths in South Carolina are blamed on the storms: A body was found “in a collapsed building in Seneca after a tornado touched down in the area,” and three more people died in the Lowcountry, the Greenville News reported.
In the Charlotte area, according to Medic, there were 17 traffic accidents after midnight — most of which occurred between 5:30 and 7:30 a.m. Monday during the storm. “A silver lining of the Stay at Home Order is a decrease in the number of cars on the roadway during the worst of the storm,” Medic said in a tweet.
Many of the power outages in Mecklenburg County were in the northern part of the county, according to Duke Energy.
Most of the outages in the state were in the western part of North Carolina, where the storm knocked down trees and power lines.
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Accidents and downed trees
After a night of gusts in the 60 mph range and heavy rains of up to 2 inches in 15 minutes, Charlotte area law enforcement agencies reported road blockages from fallen trees and power lines Monday.
In Charlotte’s NoDa neighborhood, a tree fell into a house on Herrin Avenue.
And a woman had to be rescued from her south Charlotte home after a tree fell on it Monday morning, reported WBTV, the Observer’s news partner. By the afternoon, a tree service worker could be seen removing the large tree that fell into the home at Sharon Lakes Condominiums off Sharon Lakes Road and Harvest Lane in the Starmount area.
Another tree fell into a business on East Morehead Street near Euclid Avenue, blowing out windows, WBTV reported.
“It was one heck of a storm, high winds and heavy rain,” the Huntersville Fire Department posted on Twitter.
Union County Public Works said the sanitary sewer near Indian Trial had an overflow for four hours, which officials estimated led to 7,200 gallons of wastewater entering Crooked Creek.
And in Lowell, downed power lines were blamed for closing a portion of Interstate 85 in Gaston County.
Internet down
The storm also saw many lose Internet connections.
Comporium, an Internet provider for York and Lancaster County in South Carolina, posted on Twitter Monday that the company was experiencing “wide-spread service outages due to the storm this morning.”
Patrick Paterno, a spokesman for Charter Communications, which operates the Internet provider Spectrum, was unable to say how many of Charter’s customers were without Internet services. But he said “the vast majority” who don’t have service had lost connection because of the power outages.
This story was originally published April 13, 2020 at 5:54 AM.
