Power restored to 900k but tens of thousands remain in the dark

More than 42,000 customers in Wake County were still in the dark Monday night. In Robeson County, 22,000 customers were without power while nearly 21,000 customers were still in the dark in Wayne County. Johnston County was reporting about 18,000 power outages.

Power has been restored to more than 900,000 customers over the past 48 hours. At one point during the storm, 1.2 million Duke customers were without power

“It is a major historical storm that will take some time to repair,” said Jeff Brooks with Duke Energy.

For some people without power, it could take until the end of the week to get the lights back on.

“I don’t think you know how much you depend on it until you don’t have it,” said Charlie Price.

Life in the dark can be frustrating but in Charlie and Tonia Price’s home, the candlelight was also a bit romantic as the celebrated their anniversary.

“We enjoy being together on a special day,” Tonia Price said.

Trees pulled down power lines as well as power poles. Duke Energy already had 5,000 workers in the region before the storm and doubled that number by bringing in workers from as far away as Canada.

A crew from Greensboro was working to get everything back up and running Monday, but replacing the widespread damage caused by Hurricane Matthew will take time.

“So many trees down, there are flooded areas that we can’t even get to yet and that prevents us from restoring some outages,” Brooks said.

Brooks said he knows and understands that people are frustrated. For the time being, the Price family is making the most of their situation.

“We are just trying to make the best of it and make it fun. Maybe in a few days, if it doesn’t cut back on, ask us again,” Charlie Price said.