RALEIGH, N.C. — The Christmas weekend got off to a bumpy start for many in the Triangle, where outages meant lack of heat for people staying inside on a day where an arctic blast of cold air blanketed the southeast.
As of Friday night, temperatures had dipped into single-digit wind chills, with thousands of families still without power – and without heat. Power crews were working round-the-clock on Christmas weekend to try and restore power for families.
At the peak of power outages Friday afternoon, more than 200,000 customers were without power in North Carolina as wind speeds picked up in excess of 40 miles per hour in some parts of the state. Wake County saw over 25,000 outages, the most of any county in the state. Durham County had more than 5,000. In Johnston County, there were more than 7,000 without power.
As of 11 p.m. Friday night, around 10,000 were still without power in the Triangle – including Wake, Durham and Orange County.
Duke Energy still had crews working to restore power to customers as of Friday night. High winds slowed their work during the day.
Part of Millbrook Road near Falls of Neuse was still blocked off due to downed power lines just before midnight, with families in the area approaching 10 hours of being without electricity. Some were making last minute plans just to stay safe.
Instead of enjoying a relaxing holiday weekend, Tashyra Fowler, mother of a 9-month-old baby, said the lack of power made it difficult to keep her baby warm and fed.
“It’s been kind of stressful,” she said.
Late at night, Fowler was taking her baby for a ride in the car just to stay warm. They’ll be staying with family tonight.
Isaac Fernandez, of Raleigh, lives just feet away from the tree that barely missed his him when it fell. With no heat, he’s spent the evening huddling around the fireplace with family.
“Hopping around the chimney and making some hot potatoes, that’s all we’re doing,” he said.
“This is all hands on deck,” said Jeff Brooks with Duke Energy. “We all had holiday plans just like everybody else but we put those aside because our first priority is our customers. Because this is a statewide event, we couldn’t shift employees to any one location, so what we’re doing is looking at the areas that are hardest hit, and then we’ll begin shifting resources to assist in those areas.”
Downed trees and power lines cancel some holiday events
One of the more dramatic signs of damage came in Rocky Mount. A series of utility poles were knocked over on Benvenue Road, shutting down the roadway and prompting police and power crews to repair to the damage.
In the Triangle, some intersections were without functioning stoplights. Power was knocked out at Highway 54 and Farrington Road, creating a dangerous situation at a busy intersection between Durham and Chapel Hill.
Many viewers submitted photos of fallen trees or toppled Christmas decorations. Trees were more prone to fall after a rainy Thursday that made the soil saturated.
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Temperatures are expected to dip into the teens Friday night, and wind chills could drop ‘feels like’ temperatures down into the single digits on Saturday morning.