CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Duke Energy says Carolinians should prepare for anything when it comes to storms like we saw on Tuesday this week.
A spokesperson for Duke Energy, Jeff Brooks, says anyone can get a power outage because it can be hard to predict who will get hit the hardest.
"You may see a pocket over here and it’s perfectly fine a couple of miles away," he said.
For the latest weather alerts, download the WCNC Charlotte mobile app and enable push notifications.
The rain/storm chance increases this afternoon and evening. A few strong storms are possible with gusty winds. A spin-up tornado is not out of the question.
The strong winds and heavy rain on Tuesday contributed to many downed trees and branches, which can take down power lines and break poles.
"Where you’ve got more tree cover near power lines, where you’ve got sort of a denser canopy, that’s areas where you may see the potential for more outages."
However, Brooks says upgrades to infrastructure throughout Mecklenburg County did keep outage numbers lower and the durations shorter than expected.
Power crews have been restocking their trucks in preparation for what Friday's storm will bring.
"Ultimately, we just have to have our crews ready to respond just like we did this week. They responded quickly, they worked hard, worked into the night, overnight in some cases and we were able to restore more than 425,000 customers in 24 hours," said Brooks. "That’s a good day’s work and we want to try to deliver the same results with anything we see in this storm."
Brooks says some of the tree-dense neighborhoods that saw power outages on Tuesday are more likely to have outages on Friday, but again, everyone should be prepared.
He also says to have a plan, especially if you rely on electricity for medical needs.
Contact Destiny Richards at drichards5@wcnc.com and follow her on Facebook, X and Instagram.
WCNC Charlotte’s Weather IQ YouTube channel gives detailed explainers from the WCNC Charlotte meteorologists to help you learn and understand weather, climate and science. Watch previous stories where you can raise your Weather IQ in the YouTube playlist below and subscribe to get updated when new videos are uploaded.