The outage began around 2:30 a.m. and initially affected about 25,000 customers, primarily south of the Durham Freeway. By the afternoon, service had been restored to the vast majority of those impacted.
The outage also knocked out several traffic lights, creating challenges for drivers during the morning commute.
Chopper 11 flew over the scene as utility crews worked to remove the fallen tree from the transmission lines and restore service.
Crews remove tree from transmission lines that caused Durham power outage
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