Carolinas brace for impacts from Helene

CHARLOTTE — Hurricane Helene is set to slam Florida and it is expected to make landfall Thursday along Florida’s Gulf Coast.

In our area, the worst weather will be in the mountains, which could see over 10 inches of rain and severe weather.

Well-trained Charlotte firefighters are in an area expected to be hit the hardest by Hurricane Helene.

Seventeen members of Charlotte Fire Department’s Swift Water Rescue Team are in western North Carolina.

The group said they’re prepared to respond to flood-prone areas and landslides.

“We’ll take a high-terrain vehicle in case we do get into some flood waters, will be able to navigate through small amounts of that to transport people, if necessary,” said Capt. Jeff Bright, CFD. “And we’ll take a couple of ATVs with us in case we’re into a larger operation and the footprint grows.”

First responders from Raleigh and Greensboro are also heading west to help during the storm, CFD said.

Bracing for Impact: Duke Energy closely monitors Hurricane Helene

Bracing for Impact: Duke Energy closely monitors Hurricane Helene

Charlotte will also be impacted by several inches of rain, high winds, and the chance of tornadoes.

These conditions could start by Thursday night and last into Friday morning.

A rep for Duke Energy said on Wednesday that crews are preparing for the storm in the field and at its operations centers.

Workers are checking inventory, equipment, and supplies. All teams will be on standby once Helene reaches the Carolinas.

Duke Energy said it will have 10,000 crew members ready to respond to outages in the Charlotte region, including damage assessors, lineworkers, and vegetation teams.

Those workers do a lot of prep work throughout the year to strengthen the grid and reduce impacts during big storms.

A spokesperson said 40% of customers are protected by new technology that attaches to the top of power poles and can lessen lengthy outages.

“When we get a big storm like this, it’s been paying off, we’ve been integrating self-healing technology across our grid, which is a newer technology,” said spokesperson Logan Stewart, Duke Energy. “Almost like GPS, when it notices an issue, it reroutes it so those customers experience a very quick interruption or no interruption at all.”

Charlotte Fire Swift Water Rescue Team travels to western North Carolina

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