CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Hundreds of thousands of people are still without power over a week after Hurricane Helene made landfall, now experts are thinking about ways to keep outages from happening.
Keeping the power on during a powerful storm is possible, but it could be costly.
Experts say power lines can be buried underground to prevent downed trees from sparking widespread outages but not without a hefty price tag.
According to North Carolina's Natural Disaster Preparedness Task Force, burying power lines would cause electric bills to go up 125%. Not only would the impacts be costly, but construction would be lengthy. Some estimates say it would take up to 25 years to buy every existing power line in the state.
The plan isn't foolproof, either. The Electric Cooperative of South Carolina says threats to underground power lines could be worse than those above ground, meaning floods could cause repairs to take longer.
As repairs continue, officials encourage people to stay prepared for a storm so lengthy outages don't come as a surprise.
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