CRAVEN COUNTY, N.C. (WITN) – Dozens of bucket trucks are sitting outside of New Bern this morning as they await the winter storm.
Duke Energy has set up a staging site at the Craven County Fairgrounds on U.S. 70.
Several dozen line trucks are already there and 100 more expected utility vehicles are making their way from across the Carolinas as they work closely with emergency services and the DOT as they monitor the storm and for expected outages.
The crews will be in place to quickly respond to downed power lines and poles during this snow and ice storm.
While most of the trucks are from Duke, there are others from electric co-ops, as well.
“The thing with the winter storm that we’re looking at is the ice accumulation,” said Caroline Fountain, Duke Energy spokesperson. “A quarter inch of ice will start accumulating on the tree branches that could fall onto our power lines causing a temporary power outage so that’s the main thing we’re looking at. It takes about 6 inches of snow to do the same thing.”
Fountain says if you have a power outage or know of an area where power lines are down, you can go to the Duke Energy website to make a report.
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