Power outage history
Robeson County North Carolina
10hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
44th most of 100 in North Carolina 1.6× the national median
Every day since 2015
Eleven years, one night at a time
Each cell is a day. The brighter it is, the larger the share of Robeson's customers who were without power at that day's worst moment.
Year by year
Hours in the dark, per customer
2018 was the worst well-recorded year, at 2.2 days for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Robeson, hours without power per customer
The record
The biggest outages since 2015
Ranked by customer-hours lost: customers out multiplied by how long they stayed out. Times are local.
| Began | Storm | Peak out | Share | Lasted | 90% restored | Customer-hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 8, 2016 | Hurricane Matthew | 43,321 | 72% | 8.9 d | 5.3 d | 3.9M |
| Sep 15, 2018 | Hurricane Florence | 35,665 | 59% | 6.8 d | 5.2 d | 2.8M |
| Sep 30, 2022 | Hurricane Ian | 19,504 | 32% | 2.0 d | 18 h | 284k |
| Feb 17, 2015 | Ice storm | 9,108 | 15% | 41 h | 30 h | 242k |
| Sep 5, 2019 | Hurricane Dorian | 11,247 | 19% | 25 h | 21 h | 141k |
| Sep 13, 2018 | Hurricane Florence | 17,825 | 29% | 22 h | 13 h | 122k |
| Aug 7, 2024 | Hurricane Debby | 7,998 | 13% | 20 h | 7.0 h | 98k |
| Sep 2, 2016 | Hurricane Hermine | 6,504 | 11% | 21 h | 13 h | 78k |
| Jan 9, 2024 | Thunderstorms | 5,121 | 8% | 24 h | 20 h | 59k |
| Apr 13, 2020 | Thunderstorms | 7,689 | 13% | 16 h | 11 h | 52k |
| May 22, 2020 | Thunderstorms | 4,019 | 7% | 20 h | 19 h | 37k |
| Nov 24, 2023 | No storm report | 4,782 | 8% | 7.2 h | 7.0 h | 34k |
| Jan 22, 2016 | Winter storm | 2,543 | 4% | 26 h | – | 34k |
| Sep 27, 2024 | No storm report | 6,830 | 11% | 10 h | 7.0 h | 31k |
| Jul 19, 2016 | Thunderstorms | 4,945 | 8% | 15 h | 15 h | 30k |
| Jan 16, 2022 | No storm report | 5,895 | 10% | 11 h | 8.0 h | 30k |
| Oct 8, 2016 | Hurricane Matthew | 10,088 | 17% | 5.8 h | 13 h | 29k |
| Oct 3, 2018 | No storm report | 13,175 | 22% | 1.8 h | 12 min | 23k |
| Aug 31, 2023 | Hurricane Idalia | 3,161 | 5% | 15 h | 6.8 h | 23k |
| Jul 8, 2016 | No storm report | 2,968 | 5% | 12 h | – | 20k |
| Nov 12, 2017 | No storm report | 2,625 | 4% | 10 h | – | 20k |
| Apr 19, 2019 | Thunderstorms | 5,933 | 10% | 5.2 h | 3.8 h | 19k |
| Aug 2, 2024 | Thunderstorms | 3,786 | 6% | 5.8 h | 6.2 h | 19k |
| Jan 4, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 3,267 | 5% | 8.8 h | 8.0 h | 19k |
| Feb 7, 2020 | No storm report | 4,785 | 8% | 9.8 h | 6.5 h | 18k |
| Dec 23, 2022 | No storm report | 2,722 | 5% | 14 h | – | 14k |
| Apr 12, 2024 | Thunderstorms | 3,518 | 6% | 8.5 h | 9.0 h | 13k |
| Sep 23, 2016 | No storm report | 4,476 | 7% | 3.0 h | 1.8 h | 13k |
| Jun 26, 2024 | No storm report | 4,223 | 7% | 3.2 h | 3.2 h | 13k |
| Oct 11, 2018 | Hurricane Michael | 2,001 | 3% | 12 h | – | 12k |
After the peak
How fast the lights come back
Each line is one major outage, from its peak. The amber line is the typical path.
When it happens
The outage clock
Customer-hours out by month (rings, January innermost) and local hour, 2018–2025.
What was happening
Weather behind the outages
Each outage is matched to NOAA storm reports for Robeson from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- Tropical storm 81%
- No storm on record 12%
- Thunderstorms 6.8%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Robeson
As each utility reports to the Energy Information Administration for its whole North Carolina territory, not this county alone. Outage minutes include major storm days.
| Utility | Type | Outage min / yr | Excl. major storms | Outages / yr | Residential ¢/kWh | Customers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Duke Energy Progress | Investor Owned | 183 | 145 | 1.41 | 15.2 | 1.4M |
| Brunswick Electric Member Corp | Cooperative | 41 | 36 | 0.64 | 13.3 | 108k |
| Lumbee River Elec Member Corp | Cooperative | 152 | 100 | 1.73 | 14.3 | 65k |
| Town of Red Springs | NC | – | – | – | – | 16k |
| City of Lumberton | Municipal | 65 | – | 1.02 | 13.9 | 9.9k |
EIA Form 861, latest year each utility reported. Outage minutes are SAIDI, the yearly minutes the average customer goes without power; outages a year are SAIFI.
Next door
Neighbouring counties
- Bladen 17 h
- Scotland 16 h
- Columbus 16 h
- Dillon, SC 11 h
- Robeson (this county) 10 h
- Hoke 6.2 h
- Cumberland 4.2 h
- Marlboro, SC 3.7 h
- Horry, SC 2.1 h
About these numbers
Notes
Outages come from the EAGLE-I record of utility outage maps collected every 15 minutes by Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Hours without power are customer-hours divided by the county's 60,455 electricity customers. Averages use well-covered years from 2018. Outages shorter than 15 minutes, and utilities that publish no outage map, are not in the record, so these figures understate the total. How every number is made →