WAXHAW, N.C. — As of Tuesday afternoon, hundreds of homes in North Carolina were still without power after a storm with strong winds pulled down trees and power lines Sunday night.
Things have drastically improved since Monday when close to 10,000 homes in North and South Carolina were without power. Duke Energy had to call in crews from the coastal region for reinforcement.
“If [at] every location it took three to four hours to complete a repair and you have 5- or 6,000 of these locations, you can get a sense of the scale of the type of damage we’ve seen across the state as a result of this storm,” Jeff Brooks, a spokesperson for Duke Energy, said.
Helen Hudson, a resident of Waxhaw, works from home and had to miss two days of work because of the outage. On Tuesday morning, she was charging her phone from her car.
“That’s really bad because that’s my livelihood,” Hudson said. “And I won’t get paid for it.”
On Monday night, temperatures dropped into the 20s and, without power, many homes also didn’t have heat.
“I couldn’t have enough blankets on me to keep me warm,” Hudson said. “And my friend actually had to leave because it was just too cold for her.”
Her friend is Brenda Caldwell, who left her home when it became unbearably cold on Monday night. Instead, Caldwell spent the night with a friend in Charlotte. This allowed her to stay warm and finish her work.
“You know, being remote, my boss is not in the same situation,” Caldwell said. She told WCNC Charlotte her company is based out of state. “It’s just been a tough two days.”
Things are starting to look up, though. By Tuesday afternoon, Hudson and Caldwell got their power. Brooks said by Tuesday night, power will return to almost all homes.
Contact Indira Eskieva at ieskieva@wcnc.com and follow her on Facebook and Twitter and Instagram.