News Releases

Piedmont Natural Gas today advised customers that Piedmont crews will be canvassing neighborhoods in flood impacted areas to inspect natural gas meters for signs of submersion from flooding caused by Hurricane Matthew. Any meter believed to have been submerged will be removed and natural gas service to the home or business will be turned off.

Less than 30,000 power outages remain Friday as Duke Energy crews continue to restore power to the roughly 1.5 million customers affected by Hurricane Matthew.

Since the weekend, Duke Energy crews have reduced the number of customer outages caused by Hurricane Matthew from roughly 1.4 million to fewer than 60,000 – a company record pace for restorations in similar storms.

Although Hurricane Matthew is no longer a threat, the devastation it created continues to be felt by thousands of people in the Southeast. Duke Energy today announced a donation of $325,000 to help seven charities providing disaster relief assistance in several of the states it serves – North Carolina, South Carolina and Florida.

More than 10,000 people are working to restore power Wednesday to Duke Energy customers in the Carolinas in the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew. Extreme flooding in certain counties has hindered restoration.

Duke Energy has restored more than a million (924,000 in North Carolina and 180,000 in South Carolina) of the 1.36 million customers who lost power due to Hurricane Matthew.

Duke Energy's success in making restorations is being tempered by the desire to have all customers restored as quickly and safely as possible.

Power has been restored to more than 600,000 Duke Energy customers in the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew over the weekend. Over 550,000 customers are without power now. In North Carolina, 410,000 customers are without power. In South Carolina: 140,000 customers.

Hurricane Matthew has left large portions of the Carolinas more heavily damaged than projected, on a scale similar to the destruction of Hurricanes Hugo and Floyd. In some Duke Energy service areas, the electrical system will need to be rebuilt.

Although Hurricane Matthew has been downgraded to Category 1 as it soaks the Carolinas, outage numbers are climbing and the potential for damage remains significant. The storm will continue to bring heavy rains and high winds to the Carolinas today before exiting on Sunday.