Duke Energy taps Midwest utility crews to help Debby response in FL, keeping NC to help at home

RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) -- With Tropical Storm Debby tracking toward North Carolina, Duke Energy warns there could be outages across the Tar Heel state.

Ahead of the storm, the utility company said it was keeping as many workers as possible in North Carolina.

"We moved about 350 line and tree workers from the Midwest to Florida to help, but we decided to keep the Carolinas crews mostly intact there, because we do think we could need them in a few days," said Duke Energy Spokesperson Jeff Brooks. "You do want to keep crew locally available to support customers if they do experience outages."

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Debby made landfall Monday morning in Florida as a Category 1 hurricane. Its projected path has it slowly moving across southern Georgia and South Carolina before dipping back into the Atlantic Ocean temporarily. The storm is expected to hug the South Carolina coast Tuesday and Wednesday before turning north and heading up through North Carolina.

Brooks said a recent investment is going to be put to the test over the next few days.



There's technology that can identify problems when they occur -- whether it's a tree on the line or a car hitting a utility pole -- and quickly reroute power from other lines.

"If we do experience an outage, we have a lot of self-healing technology in the Triangle. That will really come into play to reroute power to other power lines to try and restore power automatically," said Brooks.

WATCH: Self-healing technology to improve Duke Energy power grid


The company said it has been preparing for hurricane season for months.



Poles and lines have been upgraded to take on higher winds and handle more extreme conditions. Along the coast, flood protection improvements have been made around substations.

The City of Raleigh also has been preparing.

Crews have been rolling around the City of Oaks and clearing debris from drains, ahead of the heavy rains that are expected. Raleigh workers inspected 200 drains Monday.

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