Duke Energy is closely monitoring the path of the storm for a clear picture of where to position crews ahead of the storm.
"Fortunately, for us, we have a large contingent, thousands of line and tree workers here in the Carolinas that can be positioned and moved wherever they need to go fairly quickly," said Duke Energy representative Jeff Brooks. "So as we begin to see the path of this storm get more refined, our damage modeling systems will identify where we are likely to see downed trees, where we are likely to see broken poles, where we could see flooding potential. And all those things factor into the types of resources we deploy and where we put them."
Brooks also shared that the energy company has already made upgrades to its grid to make sure it's more resistant to outages, as well as upgraded poles and wires. They have also added things such as healing technology, which can help to reroute power to restore service faster when there are outages.
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The City of Raleigh is also preparing for the impacts of the tropical system. City crews started to lower Lake Johnson on Wednesday.
Since then, the lake has been lowered nearly 2.5 feet. A city spokesperson said the lake level will probably drop to 3.5 - 3.75 feet by Saturday at noon.
Crews also inspected and cleared out about 200 storm drains on Friday.
"Any type of tropical system brings with it some similar characteristics. You typically see very heavy rainfall, which does saturate the ground," Brooks said. "You often see strong wind gusts, sometimes very strong wind gusts. And that combination will typically bring down trees onto power lines, damaging poles and lines that require physical rebuilding of that equipment. So it takes a lot of resources. And that's something that we have to step up for and be prepared for."
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