July 7, 9:00 p.m. – We’re happy to share that all major outages were restored by 9:00 PM tonight. Crews are now working on the two remaining outages. Thank you to our members for your patience and understanding as we navigated the unprecedented flooding caused by Tropical Storm Chantal. A huge thanks to our incredible lineworkers, tree crews and the team from Wake Electric for their tireless efforts to restore power safely and quickly to our community.
July 7, 4:30 p.m. – We’ve made great progress and have outages down to 1,665 from 10,400 this morning. Our crews are continuing restoration efforts and will work until dark to get as many members back on as possible. The photo below shows how much the water along the Eno River in Hillsborough has receded since this morning. We’re still hopeful that most power will be restored by 7:00 PM tonight. Thank you for your patience as our crews work tirelessly and safely to restore power. We’ll share another update this evening.
July 7, 2 p.m. – We currently have 4,100 members without power. Crews are on the way to each substation and are working all taps that are still without power. Based on current progress, we’re hopeful that power will be restored to all members by 7:00 PM tonight, barring any unforeseen issues. We’ll share another update this afternoon as we continue restoration efforts. Thank you for your patience as our crews work hard to get everyone back online safely! You can check the status of updates live on our outage map: https://outageviewer.pemc.coop/.
July 7, 10 a.m. – Heavy rain and strong winds from Hurricane Chantal caused widespread outages overnight. As of this morning, we’re responding to 51 separate outages affecting more than 10,400 members, with Orange County hit hardest due to severe flooding. Even though the sun is out, high water is still preventing us from safely restoring power in some areas. This means restoration will take time in locations where crews can’t access equipment until floodwaters recede.
Extra crews from contractors and Wake Electric are on the way to assist. All of our field teams are hard at work prepping materials and equipment so we can move fast as soon as it’s safe. We know being without power is frustrating, and we sincerely appreciate your patience as we work to get everyone back online as quickly and safely as possible. We apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate everyone’s patience.
July 7, 9 a.m. – Even with the sun out, flooding is still an issue. We cannot safely restore power with flooding at the site so some areas will have to wait until waters subside. This will make restoration slow. We have at least one broken triple circuit pole out of our West Hillsborough substation which currently has running water in it and is completely inaccessible. We have additional crews assisting us this morning from contractors and Wake EMC. We also have all field roles performing birddog or material carrier duties. Even when flooding forces us to wait, we are preparing materials and staff to respond as quickly as possible.
July 7, 6 a.m. – As rain and wind continued into the night we experienced additional outages and now have more than 10,300 members without power predominantly in Orange County. Crews are currently working to restore power and will continue until everyone is restored. We hope to have everyone restored later today.
July 6, 9:35 p.m. – Our crews are responding to 87 outages impacting more than 7,550 members as a result of Tropical Storm Chantal’s heavy rains and winds. Flooding, impassable roads and darkness are making work dangerous so crews will be stopping for the evening but will be ready to respond at first light.