On Tuesday, Dec 11, at 5:45 p.m., Guilford County announced that it was lifting the State of Emergency imposed by the county two days earlier. The State of Emergency was declared on Sunday, Dec. 9 and officially ended at 5 pm. Tuesday.
The declaration was issued due to the hazardous road conditions, downed power lines and the loss of electricity to nearly 3,000 Duke Energy customers in the county as well as the other havoc wrought by Winter Storm Diego.
On Tuesday, a press release from Guilford County Communications Manager Worley Smith stated, “Grid Power for the impacted areas has been restored while snow removal and residential cleanups continue.”
Chairman of the Guilford County Board of Commissioners Alan Branson, who declared the State of Emergency, said on Tuesday evening that he’d been in discussions with Guilford County Emergency Management Division Director Don Campbell and it was clear from those conversations that conditions across the county had greatly improved.
“Things are coming back around and things are getting much better,” Branson said. “Everybody needs to get back to work.”
“There are just a handful of people left who don’t have power,” Branson added.
Branson also said residents should still be very concerned about black ice when the water from the melting snow refreezes each night.
By Tuesday afternoon, Duke Energy had repaired more than 685,000 outages across North Carolina and South Carolina.
As of noon Tuesday, a total of 45,000 Duke Energy customers still didn’t have power: 31,000 in North Carolina and 14,000 in South Carolina. Power in Guilford County was almost completely restored by midday Tuesday.
In a public statement, Duke Energy Storm Director Jason Hollifield thanked customers “who have been patient during the storm and supportive of workers in the field.”
Hollifield did not mention the customers who were constantly complaining to the company the whole time.
He also stated, “Our crews are working long hours in tough conditions. They’re thankful for the kind words from customers as they continue to restore power in challenging conditions.”
Duke Energy had a workforce of about 9,000 restoring power during the past three days. At the peak of the power problems on Sunday afternoon, 305,000 Duke Energy customers were without power. Overall, about 730,000 outages occurred across the two states during the storm.