More than 30,000 Orange County residents are without power as a result of Thursday’s ice storms, and the county has declared a state of emergency, said Jim Groves, Orange County emergency services director.
The chair of the Board of Orange County Commissioners, Barry Jacobs, declared a state of emergency early this afternoon.
“We are mobilizing resources. We are asking for state assistance,” Groves said.
He said declaring a state of emergency allows those responding to be on the same page. The county has a plan of action to follow in case of emergency, he said.
Groves said the power outages were caused by ice on trees and power lines. Duke Energy is predicting multi-day outages, he said.
At 2:45 p.m., Duke Energy reported that 21,108 of its customers at more than 260 locations in Orange County had lost power. Piedmont Electric Membership Corporation reported that 9,765 of its Orange County customers had lost power.
Though electricity is an issue, Groves said the roads are safe.
“The roads are actually in pretty good shape,” he said.
The county will start making decisions about opening emergency shelters around 3 p.m., Groves said. The county runs shelters with help from the American Red Cross, Orange County Department of Social Services and Orange County Health Department.
