Many in the United States woke up with a “bah humbug” on Saturday as they remained without power going into the Christmas weekend.
As of 10 a.m. EST, over 1.6 million people in the U.S. are without power, with a majority of the people affected being on the East Coast. North Carolina is the state with the most outages, with 443,197 residents being without power — a sharp increase from Friday, when over 200,000 residents were without power in the early afternoon, according to PowerOutage.us.
“As extreme temps drive unusually high energy demand across the Carolinas we have begun short, temporary power outages. These emergency outages are necessary to protect the energy grid against longer, more widespread outages,” power company Duke Energy said in a statement.
NORTH CAROLINA RESIDENTS TO RECEIVE INCOME TAX CUT STARTING. ON JAN. 1
As extreme temps drive unusually high energy demand across the Carolinas we have begun short, temporary power outages. These emergency outages are necessary to protect the energy grid against longer, more widespread outages. We appreciate your patience. https://t.co/qwy23w94vc pic.twitter.com/imkI2JQba4
— Duke Energy (@DukeEnergy) December 24, 2022
The outages occurred amid a severe winter storm striking the Northeast and the Midwest, with the historic “bomb cyclone” leaving many without power just before the holiday.
While North Carolina is the state with the most power outages, Tennessee is not far off, with 265,219 outages as of 10 a.m. Maine is next with 227,722 outages, followed by South Carolina with 74,356 and New York with 73,713 outages.
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The bomb cyclone has also led many people to change their travel plans, as over 30,000 flights for Friday were either canceled or delayed due to the storm. Flights scheduled for Christmas Eve have also been affected, as 9,453 flights for Saturday have been delayed and another 3,684 have been canceled, FlightAware says.
