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MidAmerican relocates crews to Asheville for Hurricane Helene relief
North Carolina reporting ‘catastrophic grid damage’
Oct. 2, 2024 5:02 pm, Updated: Oct. 2, 2024 6:17 pm
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Days after MidAmerican Energy deployed workers to Ohio to help restore power to customers affected by Hurricane Helene, the company announced its crews will relocate to North Carolina to assist with “repairing catastrophic grid damage” in the state.
Duke Energy — which provides energy services for North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky — requested the workers in Asheville, early Tuesday morning.
The MidAmerican team — comprised of about 70 crew members — arrived Tuesday evening and began their assignments early Wednesday. They initially arrived in Ohio on Saturday, to help restore power to customers in the region, which had been pummeled by the hurricane.
Duke Energy requested the MidAmerican crews help in Spindale, North Carolina, a town of about 4,200 people located southeast of Asheville, Geoff Greenwood said.
Greenwood said it is up to Duke Energy how long the crews stay in the area and where they will be assigned to help each day. As of Wednesday, it was unclear how long they’ll be out of state.
He said all 70 crew members left Ohio.
“They all work together as a team,” Greenwood said.
MidAmerican workers completed two full days assisting with power restoration efforts in Ohio before leaving for North Carolina. Greenwood said MidAmerican does not have numbers of how many customers had their power restored by the crew.
As of Wednesday, about 335,150 customers in North Carolina remained without power, according to a U.S. power outage database.
Alliant Energy also sent repair crews out of state to help restore power, deploying about 150 workers to Virginia. A spokesperson for Alliant said they anticipate their workers to be in Virginia for one to two weeks.
Hurricane Helene hit the United States in Florida’s Big Bend area as a Category 4 hurricane, marking the third hurricane to hit the region in 13 months. As of Wednesday, the death toll from the storm topped 175.
Olivia Cohen covers energy and environment for The Gazette and is a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues.
Comments: (319) 398-8370; olivia.cohen@thegazette.com
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