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Thousands still without power in Moore County on Tuesday morning

More than 10,000 homes were without power in and around Southern Pines on Monday afternoon, more than 24 hours after snow, sleet and rain began the storm that brought down tree branches and power lines.

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By
Keely Arthur
and
Nia Harden, WRAL reporters
SOUTHERN PINES, N.C. — Several thousand customers in Moore County were still without power Tuesday morning.

On Monday afternoon, a day after a winter storm that brought down tree branches and power lines, more than 10,000 homes were without power in and around Southern Pines.

As of 9 a.m. on Tuesday morning, 4,000 customers were still without power in Moore County. According to Duke Energy, those customers should all get electicity back by the end of the day.

Duke Energy crews were busy working to get the power back, but said it could take several days to bring electricity back for some people.

Many roads in the Southern Pines area were closed off as crews worked to repair downed power lines, according to an update from Southern Pines officials. There was also several intersections in the town with traffic lights out. Officials reminded drivers that if they come across an intersection without a traffic light, they should treat it as a four-way stop.

"We strongly encourage our residents to remain at home, if possible," said Mike Camera, chief of the Southern Pines Fire Department. "Travel is still dangerous due to downed power lines and branches. If you encounter a closed road, do not attempt to go around the barricade as there will likely be a downed power line or branch. Power lines could be live and dangerous and should be avoided completely.”

The fire department received more than 100 calls for service, and the police department recieved more than 60 calls, town officials said.

"I’ve seen power lines down. I’ve seen trees hanging off of power lines. I’ve seen lots of trees down. It’s been crazy," said Southern Pines resident Nicolas Sykes.

Residents are focused on getting back to life after snow and ice damaged their homes and took out their power. Nancy Mack, from Pinehurst, said her power was restored on Monday morning.

"We did what I'm sure everybody else did – candles for light and piled on the covers last night when we went to bed to try and keep warm," she said.

Nathan Williams said the storm caught his family by surprise.

“Yesterday morning about 10, I had just cooked eggs and bacon. We were lucky," Williams said. "As soon as we finished eating the power went down and the winds kicked up. Tree limbs were snapping. [My] wife was all nervous.”

Once the storm passed, the family found a leaning power pole in their front yard. Williams was thankful that nothing from the storm damaged their home.

“We were lucky because we’ve got two vehicles in the driveway, six inches apart from each other, and a huge tree limb lands right between them," he said. "No damage to any vehicle, so the good Lord, he’s up there.”

Duke Energy spokesman Jeff Brooks says power won’t realistically won’t be back for everyone until Tuesday morning.

"We had at one point 11,000 workers in the state, many from out of state that came in to help. We put every resource possible to helping this situation," said Brooks. "We take every outage seriously and we’re not gonna be satisfied until we get the last customer with power back on"

Brian Phillips, director of public safety in Moore County, said this is the worst storm the area has seen in over 20 years. The county has opened a warming shelter at the Moore County Sports Complex, located at Recreation Center 155 Hillcrest Park Lane in Carthage.

Moore County officials tell us that’s why they’ll keep the lights on at the emergency warming shelter through the night.

"We know that we have a lot of citizens throughout Moore County who do not have power," he said. "We’re still going to keep it open through at least 8 a.m. Tuesday."

Town officials are urging the public to not visit parks within the town unless crews are able to clean up debris from fallen trees.

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