The lights are out for thousands of people in southeastern North Carolina as crews assess damage from Hurricane Dorian.
Lisa Galizia, communications director for the Carteret-Craven Electric Co-operative, said workers are already surveying conditions across the co-op's service area.
"They went out as soon as the winds died down a little after daybreak today, and now that the winds have died down enough, they should be able to get buckets up the air and make repairs," said Galizia.
The North Carolina Department of Public Safety reports the total number of outages has begun to drop since Friday morning, when roughly 230,000 in North Carolina were without power. Carteret and Craven counties were among the hardest hit, with combined outage reports topping 55,000.
Galizia said it's important for residents in affected areas to be patient and allow crews to do their work.
"If there are lines on the ground, leave them there," she said. "Give us a call, we need to know. Don't start cutting away trees or raking up limbs if you see anything on the ground. It's not worth your life to get your yard cleaned up."
