Freezing Rain Causes Power Outages for 140K Residents in North Carolina

Freezing rain and sleet this weekend knocked out power to northwestern North Carolina residents and businesses.

Duke Energy reports roughly 140,000 customers in the region were without electricity Sunday morning, with more than half the outages reported in the Greensboro and Winston-Salem area. Other swaths of outages were reported largely in the mountains in and around Asheville. Duke Energy was assessing the damage Sunday to determine restoration times.

The National Weather Service reported close to a half-inch of ice in some sections of western North Carolina, leading to fallen trees and power lines. The remainder of the state received mostly a cold rain or freezing precipitation that caused few problems.

The winter weather is part of a weekend storm that brought several inches of snow to Virginia and Maryland.