Power companies working to restore snowstorm outages

Local power companies are working around the clock to restore power outages across the county following the snowstorm that hit Orange County late Wednesday night and early Thursday morning.

As of Thursday evening, about 2,850 Duke Energy and Piedmont Electric Membership Corporation customers, combined, were without power in Orange County.

“The Orange County area was one of the hardest hit by this storm,” said Duke Energy spokeswoman Rita Sipe.

“We’re still assessing a lot of the damage in that area.”

Sipe said Duke Energy customers can expect to regain power by around 11:45 p.m. Friday.

Richard Mabbott, senior vice president and chief operating officer for Piedmont Electric, said restoration times for his company’s customers would vary, but hoped to have most people back on the grid by Friday morning.

A lot of the remaining outages are scattered throughout the county, he said.

“Sometimes you fix one bad pole and one tree and you get a thousand people back on,” he said. “In this case, a lot of them are for one customer.”

Mabbott said Piedmont Electric has brought in outside crews to assist in restoring the outages and was working throughout the night to get to everyone as quickly as possible.

Though the snowstorm caused power outages, it did not cause any accidents on Chapel Hill roadways Thursday, said Chuck Quinlan, watch commander for the Chapel Hill Police Department.

Quinlan said major roadways were clear by Thursday afternoon, though some back roads might still be dangerous.

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