2M customers still without power after Helene; some local grids must ‘be completely rebuilt’

• About 2 million electric customers remained without power across the U.S. Southeast and Mid-Atlantic on Monday morning after Hurricane Helene devastated utility systems last week, and some areas will require a full rebuild of energy infrastructure, utilities said.
• The storm struck Florida as a Category 4, but only about 100,000 customers remained without power in the Sunshine State. In contrast, 750,000 were without power in South Carolina; 570,000 in Georgia; and 460,000 in North Carolina.
• “There are lots of areas across the South Carolina Upstate and North Carolina mountains where we’re going to have to completely rebuild parts of our system, not just repair it,” Jason Hollifield, Duke Energy storm director for the Carolinas, said in a statement.

Dive Insight:

In total, Helene knocked out power for almost 6 million customers in 10 states, according to the Edison Electric Institute, which represents investor-owned utilities. Utilities say they cannot estimate restoration times, in some cases, because roads are impassable and grids must be reconstructed.

“Historic flooding, fallen trees and debris, and road and bridge closures continue to present major challenges in the hardest-hit areas and are limiting workers’ ability to assess damage and provide customers with estimates for when power is likely to be restored in those areas,” EEI said in a Sunday statement.

Along with the Carolinas and Georgia, there were outages in Florida, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia.

“Electric companies are working with local and state officials to gain access to these hard-hit areas and are using helicopters and drones to conduct damage assessments,” EEI said. “In some communities, storm damage was so catastrophic that energy infrastructure needs to be completely rebuilt before power can be restored.”

Duke Energy was one of the hardest-hit utilities. By Sunday, the utility said it had restored power to more than 1.1 million customers in North Carolina and South Carolina, but about 900,000 remained in the dark, almost all in the western portions of each state.

“There are stretches of damage that we still can’t even assess due to mudslides, flooding and blocked roads,” Hollifield said.

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