'Rolling blackouts' left half a million North Carolinians without power Saturday morning

Saturday morning temperatures dipped into single-digit wind chills, with hundreds of thousands of families still without power – and without heat. Power crews are working round-the-clock on Christmas weekend to try and restore power for families.

Half a million customers were without power Saturday morning in North Carolina. At 2:45 p.m., there were still more than 159,000 customers without power as temperatures remain dangerously low.

The power outages began Friday, with thousands of people throughout the state losing power. And the outages only worsened as temperatures continued to plunge Saturday.

Jeff Brooks, a Duke Energy representative, said the company is conducting temporary emergency outages for several counties, which is why the outages are so widespread.

Duke Energy's system is overloaded, forcing the company to rotate power outages throughout the state to conserve electricity. The 'rolling blackouts' are rotating every 15 to 30 minutes until additional electricity is available.

Essentially what this means is Duke Energy customers are trying to use more electricity than is available. This is causing the electric company to manually enforce temporary outages in an attempt to protect the failing power grid.

Brooks admitted that Duke Energy was not prepared for such a high demand of electricity.

"So that resulted in a strain on the system that resulted in us needing to conduct these temporary outages that are designed, intentionally, to prevent more extended or harmful outages [from] happening across the system," Brooks said. "So this was a protective measure that was put into place temporarily through at least 10 a.m. today to keep the system operating reliably for as many customers as possible until those temperatures come up a bit and we have additional available generation."

Customers are being asked to conserve electricity.

"Certainly we encourage customers to continue to conserve energy where they can," Brooks said. "If your power is off, turning off anything that was on -- including the heat -- when it went off will help us bring things back more gradually."

In a press release that was sent out early Saturday morning, Duke Energy estimated the outages would be fixed by 8:30 or 9 a.m. Then, in a 9:35 a.m. interview, Brooks said he anticipated power to be restored sometime after 10 a.m. However, as of 2:45 p.m., and there are still more than 159,000 customers without power.

It is not known at this time when power is expected to be restored. Brooks said he doesn't expect the outages to continue throughout the day, but there is no confirmed timeline for restoration as of now.

Brooks said, since warmer temperatures are predicted for tomorrow, he doesn't expect there to be any problems on Christmas day.

"We do anticipate a little better conditions tonight," he said. "And hopefully we can give everyone a quiet and peaceful Christmas evening."

Cloudy and cool Thursday morning as near-record heat approaches

Part of Millbrook Road near Falls of Neuse was still blocked off due to downed power lines just before midnight Friday, with families in the area approaching 10 hours of being without electricity. Some were making last minute plans just to stay safe.

Instead of enjoying a relaxing holiday weekend, Tashyra Fowler, mother of a 9-month-old baby, said the lack of power made it difficult to keep her baby warm and fed.

"It's been kind of stressful," she said.

Late at night, Fowler was taking her baby for a ride in the car just to stay warm. They'll be staying with family tonight.

Isaac Fernandez, of Raleigh, lives just feet away from the tree that barely missed him when it fell. With no heat, he's spent the evening huddling around the fireplace with family.

"Hopping around the chimney and making some hot potatoes, that's all we're doing," he said.

"This is all hands on deck," said Jeff Brooks with Duke Energy. "We all had holiday plans just like everybody else but we put those aside because our first priority is our customers. Because this is a statewide event, we couldn't shift employees to any one location, so what we're doing is looking at the areas that are hardest hit, and then we'll begin shifting resources to assist in those areas."

High winds, bitter cold cancel WRAL Nights of Lights, other outdoor activities

One of the more dramatic signs of damage came in Rocky Mount. A series of utility poles were knocked over on Benvenue Road, shutting down the roadway and prompting police and power crews to repair to the damage.

In the Triangle, some intersections were without functioning stoplights. Power was knocked out at Highway 54 and Farrington Road, creating a dangerous situation at a busy intersection between Durham and Chapel Hill.

Many viewers submitted photos of fallen trees or toppled Christmas decorations. Trees were more prone to fall after a rainy Thursday that made the soil saturated.

Temperatures are expected to dip into the teens Friday night, and wind chills could drop 'feels like' temperatures down into the single digits on Saturday morning.