Over 11,600 homes without power in Charlotte, Mecklenburg Friday night

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The number of power outages continued to climb Friday night in Charlotte and surrounding communities as thousands without power could be in the dark for multiple days, officials said.

Shortly after 8:30 p.m., Duke Energy reported more than 11,600 customers in Mecklenburg County as having lost service. Many of those outages were spread in pockets throughout the Queen City, the company’s map showed.

Across its network in North Carolina, more than 266,000 Duke Energy customers spent their Friday evening without power. Another 45,000 non-Duke customers in the state also lost power.

The company is advising customers to prepare for multi-day power outages as nearly 10,000 crew members stand by to restore electricity to the area, according to a news release.

“When outages occur, Duke Energy is committed to restoring power as safely and quickly as possible, while keeping customers informed throughout the process,” the release stated. “Line technicians do not perform elevated work in bucket trucks when winds (sustained or gusts) are above 30 miles per hour.”

Outages were also reported in Union County, with 851 customers without power, according to the Union Power Cooperative outage map.

In South Carolina, the number of outages dropped down to about 32,000, according to the Electrical Cooperatives of South Carolina outage map.

As many as 295customers in York and Lancaster counties are without service, per the Electrical Cooperatives of South Carolina outage map. No outages were reported in Chester County.

Observer reporter Kallie Cox contributed to this article.

This story was originally published September 30, 2022 at 10:01 AM.

Evan Moore

The Charlotte Observer

Evan Moore is a service journalism reporter for the Charlotte Observer. He grew up in Denver, North Carolina, where he previously worked as a reporter for the Denver Citizen, and is a UNC Charlotte graduate.