BUNCOMBE COUNTY, NC — Thousands of customers across western North Carolina were still without electricity Wednesday after severe storms and strong winds swept through the region Tuesday evening. Outage counts dropped during the morning, but utility crews were still dealing with widespread damage by late afternoon.
ReadyNC.gov showed Buncombe, Cherokee and Madison counties among the hardest hit, with outages in the thousands at the start of the day.
Outage Counts
As of 7:55 a.m., Buncombe County had more than 2,800 outages, Cherokee County had about 1,700 and Madison County had around 1,600. By 11:15 a.m., those numbers had improved to 1,472 in Buncombe, 1,574 in Cherokee and 1,187 in Madison.
Even with that progress, there were still several thousand residents without service in the afternoon. At 5:30 p.m., Cherokee County had 1,300 outages, Buncombe had 500 and Madison had 400.
Crews At Work
Duke Energy’s outage map did not provide an estimated restoration time for Buncombe County customers. Instead, the company listed the area as under repair and damage assessment…