Charlotte agencies prepare for possible Hurricane Irma impact

CHARLOTTE, NC– “When you have near hurricane force winds coming through the territory there will be outages that occur for customers,” said Meghan Miles with Duke Energy.

Duke Energy says they’ve been trimming trees throughout the city to prevent outages but they are also planning for the worst.

“Right now we are making sure we have enough supplies, and equipment and making sure we have all the materials that we need to make repairs to restore service for customers that are impacted by the storm,” said Miles.

Charlotte City Arborist Tim Porter says they are constantly checking city trees for weak branches or cracks.

“When trees fall they can really hurt people some of these trees have 50 -60 tons of wood above our head and that can cause quite a lot of damage or injury,” said Porter.

Also getting their crews in line is Charlotte Fire Department’s Emergency Management team.

“Our flood response teams and our two aquatic teams and our urban search and area teams are ready and staffed,” said Charlotte Fire Department Emergency Management Director, Rick Granger.

Granger says they learned from Hurricane Hugo on how to be better prepared in a crisis.

“We’ve added additional resources additional equipment we learned how to better prepare for building collapses and how to handle trees down in houses,” said Granger.

CDOT says they’re out clearing catch basins, investigating areas prone to flooding and have trucks fueled up and ready to respond. Charlotte Water and Sewer says they have hurricane plans in place and back up generators ready to go. City leaders say most importantly people need to find a safe place in their home and call 9-1-1 for emergencies.

“Try to save find a safe place during the storm, a center hallway a room away from where a tree may fall, or find a new place to go make sure you have a safety plan,” said Porter.