[Editor’s note: The following is a press release from Bonita Harris, spokeswoman for Dominion Energy.]

FRANKLIN

As Hurricane Florence stalls along the southern coast of North Carolina this morning, we’re making repairs as the storm’s high winds and heavy rain begin to impact our customers in North Carolina and Southeastern Virginia. Florence is a large storm with wind and rain extending far from the eye. The safety of our customers and employees is our top priority.

Since 6 o’clock last night, about 5,700 customers and 14 critical services — such as fire stations and water treatment facilities — lost power in North Carolina and Southeastern Virginia. As of 6:30 a.m., we have restored power to 1,800 of those customers and 11 critical service facilities.

A workforce of over 5,700 people is engaged and working around-the-clock to restore power to any customers who experience an outage. Those responding include Dominion Energy employees, contractors, and crews from neighboring utilities in 11 states lending help from as far away as Wisconsin, Ohio and Texas.

Slow-moving Hurricane Florence is bringing heavy rain, damaging wind and flash flooding in areas that have already experienced high rainfall this season. Ground saturation can increase the likelihood of fallen trees and downed wires. Always assume downed wires are energized and dangerous.

Flooding may slow down the restoration process because it can make roads less accessible for crews traveling to make repairs. Safety is our top priority, and our crews will restore power as soon as it’s safely possible.

We encourage customers to continue preparing for the possibility of power outages. We recognize the worst is yet to come, and we’re not taking this powerful storm for granted. Virginia and North Carolina remain in a governor-declared state of emergency.

We don’t know your power is out until you report it. If your power goes out, please let us know at https://www.dominionenergy.com/outage-center/report-and-check-outages or call us at 1-866-DOM-HELP. The fastest way to report or track an outage is online using your phone or other mobile device.