Carteret-Craven Electric Co-op has several crews helping to bring power back in Western North Carolina.
On Friday morning, Carteret-Craven Electric Co-op sent 10 linemen and the Director of Engineering to work with Rutherford Electric Membership Corporation (Rutherford EMC) to restore power to the area.
CCEC’S Communications Director, Melissa Glenn said at the height of the storm this weekend, over 80% of Rutherford EMC’s 67,000 members were without power.
“As of today at 2pm, they have power restored to 17,000 members, so there’s still about 40,000 members from Rutherford EMC with power not restored.”
But in the wake of the storm, there are millions of people without power across the southeast.
“Overall, throughout North Carolina cooperatives, we still have about 95,000 co-op members without power.”
Glenn said the CCEC team is always willing to help, especially since they are coming from an area that is frequently impacted by hurricanes and have been assisted by other electric co-ops in times of need.
“So obviously this is something we are accustomed to. We’re always happy to help, our crew wants nothing more than to help get these lights on and restore power, and get back to some normalcy for those folks out west.”
Glenn said it’s going to be a long road for everyone involved. The CCEC crews are planning to stay for the foreseeable future and then reevaluate after a week to see what needs to be done.
“There’s definitely help on the way, if not already there, and we are willing to do whatever we can to help them.”
At least 100 people have died and aid resources continue to rush to western North Carolina and all the areas impacted by Hurricane Helene.