Salisbury Fire Department

Emergency Preparedness

Duke Energy Tips
 

Safety to Customers

TO PREPARE FOR ANY POWER INTERRUPTIONS THAT MIGHT OCCUR, DUKE ENERGY ADVISES CUSTOMERS TO CHECK THEIR READINESS:

Keep a supply of water and non-perishable food items on hand.

Ensure first aid supplies and medicines are readily available.

Make sure flashlights are available and working and that a supply of extra batteries is on hand.

Have a portable radio/tv or a NOAA weather radio on hand.

Consider the need for specialty items such as baby food, additional warm clothing and a safe heat source.

Homeowners who depend on well water should draw an emergency water supply in case power to their electric water pumps is interrupted.

Consider alternate locations for yourself and your family, especially those with special needs during extended outages.

In extremely cold weather conditions, leave water faucets dripping slowly to prevent freezing.

If an outage occurs:

Customers should call Duke’s toll-free, automated outage reporting line:  

1-800-POWERON (1-800-769-3766). For Spanish call 1-866-4APAGON (1-866-427-2466)

Treat all downed power lines with extreme caution. All lines and any object touching them should be considered energized. Customers should not try to remove tree limbs from power lines. All downed power lines should be reported to Duke Energy.

If you are worried about food spoilage, you may want to put your frozen food in a cooler and keep it outdoors where it will remain frozen.

Keep refrigerators or freezers closed as much as possible during a power outage. Opening these appliances will allow food to thaw more quickly.

Listen to local radio stations for status reports from Duke Energy about affected areas and restoration activities.

Safety is our number one priority.  We offer the following safety tips to you and our customers during outage situations:


 
Stay away from power lines that have fallen or are sagging. Consider all lines energized as well as trees or limbs in contact with lines. Please report downed power lines to Duke Energy and your local police department.

Do not attempt to remove limbs or trees from lines yourself.

Stay away from lines that are sagging or meters that are loose or disconnected.

Turn off small appliances to prevent them from coming on when your power is restored.

Please listen to local radio and TV stations for status reports from Duke Energy about affected areas and restoration activities.

If you use a generator at home to provide power until your service is restore, please watch for our crews and turn the generator off when they are in your area. The electrical load can be dangerous for the line technicians making repairs. The excess electricity created by your generator can feed back into the electric lines, severely injuring a line technician believing it to be de-energized.

Generators

Duke Energy urges any customers who purchase generators to contact a licensed electrician for installation. Generators can be dangerous. Contact a licensed electrician if you have any questions about the operation of the unit.

If you are using a generator at your home to provide power until your service is restored, please watch for our crews and turn the generator off when they are in your area. The excess electricity created by your generator can feed back onto the electric lines, severely injuring a line technician who begins to work on a line, believing it to be de-energized.

When using an emergency generator in your home, it is safer to plug appliances or devices directly into the generator. Duke Energy does not recommend connection of a generator directly to a breaker panel or fuse box. If your generator has previously been connected to your panel, you MUST turn off or disconnect your main breaker to ensure the safety of our line technicians working on the line to restore your service.

Always make sure your generator exhaust is located outside and properly vented. It can be dangerous to locate a generator in an enclosed space like a garage.