Severe thunderstorms tore through the Charlotte region Friday afternoon, knocking out power to more than 18,100 customers across the Carolinas as 70 mph wind gusts and quarter-sized hail battered the area. A second wave of storms was expected to roll in around 8 p.m., raising the risk of even more outages overnight.
According to WBTV, the first wave of thunderstorms began mid-to-late Friday afternoon, bringing frequent cloud-to-ground lightning and damaging straight-line wind gusts along with localized flooding. The National Weather Service backed up the severity of the threat, issuing Severe Thunderstorm Watch 608 covering 31 North Carolina counties and Upstate South Carolina through 9 p.m., along with a Severe Thunderstorm Warning at 4:02 p.m. for Mecklenburg, Union, and York counties that flagged 70 mph gusts and quarter-sized hail, according to the National Weather Service.
Outages were concentrated mainly in the Charlotte area, though Duke Energy outages were also reported in the Fayetteville area, per the same report. More than 2,000 Duke Energy customers were without power in Chester County, South Carolina, as the storms pushed across the state line. Union Power Cooperative had not reported outages among its customers as of the report, nor had Blue Ridge Energy.
More Storms, Flooding Risk Loom Through the Weekend
Humidity was expected to remain noticeable into Saturday, and showers and storms could linger into the weekend, with the heaviest activity anticipated Saturday afternoon or evening, the station's report notes. Residents were urged to monitor conditions closely as the second wave of storms approached Friday night, since additional wind damage could compound the outages already affecting the region.
The outage pattern fits a recurring problem for the Charlotte region: summer squall lines with strong, gusty winds routinely snap tree limbs onto overhead distribution lines. Earlier this year, on March 16, a squall line swept through central North Carolina and cut power to over 6,000 Duke Energy customers, with damage concentrated in Charlotte and near Lake Norman in Iredell County, as Hoodline previously reported.
Downed Lines Carry Deadly Risk, Officials Warn
Duke Energy advised the public to consider all power lines and any objects touching them as energized and dangerous, urging people to stay away from fallen or sagging lines and to keep children and family pets clear of any area where lines may have come down. People who find themselves inside a car struck by a fallen power line should stay in the vehicle, and anyone forced to leave a car because of fire or immediate danger should jump clear and land on both feet without touching the car, according to the utility's guidance relayed by WBTV.
The warnings carry particular weight in Charlotte after a deadly incident earlier this summer. On July 7, a 37-year-old woman was electrocuted and killed after severe storms snapped a live utility wire near Craig Avenue and Sharon Amity Road in southeast Charlotte, as Hoodline reported at the time. That fatality has shaped how officials and utilities frame every subsequent storm warning about downed lines.
Who to Call and Where to Track Outages
Duke Energy asked customers to report power line hazards to 800-228-8485, or to contact local emergency services. Other outage contact numbers listed included Blue Ridge Electric at 800-448-2386, Dominion Energy at 866-366-4357, Union Power at 800-794-4423, Duke Energy at 800-769-3766, and Duke Energy Progress at 800-419-6356. The North Carolina Department of Public Safety also offers a statewide outage-tracking portal that aggregates automated 30-minute outage feeds from Duke Energy, Dominion Energy, ElectriCities, and member-owned cooperatives, according to the North Carolina Department of Public Safety.
Duke Energy serves roughly 4.7 million electric customers across the Carolinas, including 3.8 million in North Carolina, and generates more than 65% of the state's retail electricity sales, according to the Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment & Sustainability. Smaller, member-owned cooperatives like Union Power, which serves more than 80,000 accounts across Union, Mecklenburg, Cabarrus, Stanly, and Rowan counties, report outages separately from the investor-owned utility.
The utility's restoration protocol prioritizes immediate public safety hazards first, then repairs high-voltage transmission lines, substations, and essential facilities such as hospitals and water plants before moving on to neighborhood distribution lines. Duke Energy has also been investing in automated self-healing grid technology that, in 2025, restored service and avoided more than 2.2 million customer outages while saving 5.2 million hours of total outage time systemwide. That investment comes as the utility implements a multiyear rate plan, settled with the North Carolina Public Staff in July, that averages a 3.7% annual increase and ties refunds to whether promised grid reliability upgrades are delivered on schedule.
WBTV invited viewers to submit their own weather photos and videos, and pointed readers to its weather app for ongoing alerts and forecasts as the storm system continued moving through the region Friday night.
