CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Thousands of Duke Energy customers in Mecklenburg County are without power after Irma battered the Charlotte area Monday.
As of 4:20 a.m., Duke Energy reported 9,285 outages in Mecklenburg County, as well as several thousand in surrounding counties including Cabarrus, Cleveland, Gaston, Rowan, and Union. In South Carolina, over 1,200 customers lost power in Lancaster County and another 1,591 in York County.
In total, Duke Energy reports over 58,000 outages in North Carolina and 101,000 in South Carolina.
According to Blue Ridge Energy, over 2,500 customers, primarily in Watauga County, were without power as of 10:30 p.m.
Duke Energy says they are positioned to respond to these outages, with over 4,500 workers ready to deploy to the hardest-hit areas in the region.
However, depending on the severity of the damage to Duke Energy's systems, restoration of power to homes could take up to several days in certain areas.
The company is encouraging all customers to make plans now if they haven't already in case they lose power to their residence or local businesses.
At one point, Irma knocked out power for nearly 7 million residents in Florida, about 1.5 million in Georgia and an estimated 200,000 in South Carolina.