RALEIGH, N.C., Sept. 6 NC-Progress-Energy
RALEIGH, N.C., Sept. 6 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Fewer than 10,000
Progress Energy customers remain without electricity in the wake of Tropical
Storm Hanna, and an army of company and contract crews is focusing on those
still without power.
(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20020923/CHM008LOGO-c )
As of 4 p.m., an estimated 9,300 customers were without power. Most
remaining outages are in coastal areas and the coastal plain, though scattered
outages also remain as far west as the Triangle and Sandhills. All South
Carolina customers have been restored.
"Our storm plan is working well and the crews in the field are doing an
excellent job of safely and quickly restoring power," said Hershell McCarty,
Progress Energy Carolinas' system storm coordinator. "We know any outage is
unwelcome for our customers and we appreciate their patience as we get the
lights back on."
North Carolina counties with the largest numbers of power outages at 4
p.m. are New Hanover (1,900); Wayne (1,200); Craven (1,150); Columbus (800);
Robeson (700); and Duplin (600). Outages are scattered elsewhere.
Progress Energy expects to restore service to most customers by midnight
tonight, with restoration in particularly hard-hit areas expected to be
completed by Sunday at midnight.
The rolling nature of the storm meant that new outages were being reported
this morning even as crews in other areas were restoring service. Between
midnight and 4 p.m. today, company and contract crews had restored service to
more than 178,000 customers. The largest number of customers without power at
any one time was approximately 55,000 at 8 a.m. today.
Tropical Storm Hanna came ashore at 3:20 a.m., bringing high winds and
heavy rains to much of Progress Energy Carolinas' service area. Progress
Energy has supplemented the normal complement of 300 line & service and tree
crews in Eastern North Carolina with more than 150 additional line and tree
personnel and scores of additional damage assessors and support staff.
Additional crews are scheduled to move east, if needed, once outages in the
Triangle and Sandhills are cleared.
Progress Energy works to minimize storm impacts year-round through
preventive maintenance, including trimming of trees around the company's 6,000
miles of transmission lines and 60,000 miles of electric distribution lines.
Wind-blown trees and limbs are the leading cause of power outages during
storms.
Customers and media can find outage information on Progress Energy's Web
site at www.progress-energy.com/outagemap. During major events such as storms,
the map will be updated several times a day.
The quickest way to report an outage during a storm is to call the
automated outage-reporting system at 1-800-419-6356. For the latest
information, visit Progress Energy's storm site online at
www.progress-energy.com/storm.
Progress Energy, headquartered in Raleigh, N.C., is a Fortune 250 energy
company with more than 21,000 megawatts of generation capacity and $9 billion
in annual revenues. The company will observe a century of operation in 2008.
Progress Energy includes two major utilities that serve 3.1 million customers
in the Carolinas and Florida. Progress Energy is the 2006 recipient of the
Edison Electric Institute's Edison Award, the industry's highest honor, in
recognition of its operational excellence. The company also is the first
utility to receive the prestigious J.D. Power and Associates Founder's Award
for customer service. Progress Energy serves two fast-growing areas of the
country, and the company is pursuing a balanced approach to meeting the future
energy needs of the region. That balance includes increased energy efficiency
programs, investments in renewable energy technologies and a state-of-the-art
electricity system. For more information about Progress Energy, visit the
company's Web site at www.progress-energy.com.
SOURCE Progress Energy
