UPDATE: Some areas remain without electricity 24 hours after storm

Published 6:55 pm Tuesday, August 8, 2023

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A storm with high winds, rain and a threat of a tornado left trees down on houses in Stanly County.

Wind speeds at the Stanly County Airport at 6:05 p.m. Monday were recorded at 20 mph, with gusts up to 37 mph.

This is while Stanly County was under a tornado warning and was experiencing heavy rain and thunderstorms.

One of the aftermath signs of damage is a house split by a tree on Yadkin Street in Albemarle. Another house in the Endy community is believed to be a total loss after a tree smashed it as well. Reports of damaged outbuildings, chicken coops and uprooted large trees came into the Stanly News & Press Facebook account on Tuesday.

Oakboro Choice STEM School was one of the places without power for much of the day, though electricity was restored Tuesday afternoon, according to Stanly County Schools.

The Town of Badin cancelled its meeting for Tuesday night due to no power. The town’s library also let patrons know of its closure.

Pee Dee Electric Cooperative, which serves part of Stanly County, reported around 4,500 outages overall at the height of the storm, with 545 impacted in Stanly. As of 10 a.m. Tuesday, 14 households in their Stanly service area had outages. By shortly after 6 p.m., one household remained without power.

Union Power Cooperative said 2,600 members were without power in Stanly right after the storm. As of 8:55 a.m., there eight outages, impacting 31 individuals. It was unknown if there were still outages late Tuesday.

City of Albemarle reports that 3,000 people were impacted at the storm’s peak. Public Information Officer David Fath says all power should be restored to customers. Anyone still without service is asked to call 704-984-9679.

Duke Energy had less than 50 outages as of 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, with some customers in Norwood restored late in the afternoon, while some in the Richfield area were told their power would not be restored until late Wednesday.