"We've got ice in here, and this is my father's medicine," Smith says. He showed us the coolers he's had to use to try and save what was in his fridge, and the propane stove he's been using to cook.
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But after 2 full nights without power, it's taking its toll - his house is over 80 degrees inside.
"It's hot outside, it's hot inside," he says.
He toughed it out after hearing the power might be back by Wednesday night, but instead, it's now Thursday and no luck. It's a story we saw all around East Durham.
"I slept in my car for a while but it was like a furnace in there," says Johnny Williams.
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Adding insult to injury, some of the worst hit areas from the storms, both east Durham and the area near Duke are already in urban heat islands making things feel worse in the hot weather.
Slowly but surely though crews attacked the tough jobs - the remaining areas are where trees blocked power lines making the job harder. In the long run, Duke Energy is promising changes to the grid to avoid such large-scale damage
"Strengthening poles and wires adding self-healing technology this technology automatically helps reroute power when an outage occurs," says Jeff Brooks from Duke Energy.
Until then though families trying to be patient as they can for the lights to come back on.
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Got storm damage? Insurance agent has tips for filing those claims
Got storm damage? Insurance agent has tips for filing those claims