Moore County experienced sudden power outages across the county Friday beginning at around 10 a.m.
Duke Progress has over 12,000 residents without power and both Randolph Electric and Central EMC are reporting outages.
Duke Progress is reporting damage to transmission lines in the largest hit area near the airport. Large parts of downtown Southern Pines are without power, including traffic lights. U.S. Highway 1 all the way to Cameron is without power on both sides of the highway. Reports of power outages are in Carthage too along with traffic lights.
Traffic lights that are nonoperational should be treated as a 4-way stop.
North Carolina state law requires drivers to proceed through “the intersection as though such intersection is controlled by a stop sign on all approaches to the intersection.”
The power outage has affected several schools as well.
“Due to updates from Duke Energy Progress concerning the power outages, all Area 1 Schools will have a 2-hour early dismissal,” said Moore County Schools on their Facebook page. “Cameron Elementary, Carthage Elementary, McDeeds Creek Elementary, Sandhills Farm Life Elementary and Vass- Lakeview Elementary will be released at 12:30 p.m. New Century Middle and Crain’s Creek Middle will be released at 1 p.m. Union Pines will be released at 1:40 p.m. Community Learning Center at Pinckney will be released at 12 p.m.”
Sandhills Community College Pinehurst campus closed just before lunch because of intermittent power issues, and the O’Neal School in Southern Pines briefly lost power but is still open.
File photo ~ Sandhills Sentinel.
