Windy, but no damage in area
By From Staff And Wire Reports
Published in News on January 31, 2013 1:46 PM
Compared with other parts of the state, Goldsboro and Wayne County came through unscathed by the high winds that crossed North Carolina Wednesday night, with only about 50 customers still without power this morning, said Jeff Brooks, spokesman for Progress Energy Carolinas.
"We restored just over 1,000 customers since midnight in that area," he said. "That's relatively indicative of the counties that we've seen, lots of individual scattered outages.
"All told, since midnight we restored more than 50,000 customers on the Progress Energy Carolinas system -- lots of down trees, vegetation, other types of debris, given that type of high winds. Those are the typical causes during these types of storm scenarios."
Favorable conditions, he added, allowed crews to work through the night.
Power outages actually started earlier in the day in the western part of the state, served by Progress' parent company, Duke Energy Carolinas, Brooks said, with about 10,000 customers in that region still without power.
"Eastern North Carolina, I think all things considered, we fared pretty well and we appreciate our customers' patience as we work to get the power back on," he said.
The storm system brought high winds and heavy rains that sparked some flooding in western North Carolina.
A fire driven by strong winds has destroyed a motel and a house in Surf City early today. One person was taken to the hospital.
Another man was hurt when a tree fell on his house in Fayetteville.
A Charlotte television reporter was hurt when she was struck by a vehicle during a wreck Wednesday night. News 14 Carolina News Director Jim Newman said reporter Caroline Vandergriff was in stable condition in a Charlotte hospital.
Tornado watches and wind advisories expired in eastern North Carolina early today.
Flooding occurred in the western mountains.
Appalachian State University canceled night classes Wednesday because of heavy rains and flooding across the campus in Boone. Classes were being held on a normal schedule today as the flood waters receded.
Duke Energy reported more than 11,000 people without service, Jackson County in western North Carolina had the most outages.
Overall, Progress Energy reported nearly 1,800 without service. The biggest problem was near Fort Bragg.
Dominion reported more than 600 customers without service in the northeastern corner of the state.