Power Out Map
– 0% of Sampson out 0 customers out in North Carolina

Power outage history

Sampson County North Carolina

16hours

without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025

21st most of 100 in North Carolina 2.4× the national median

Worst outage on record Hurricane Matthew · Oct 8, 2016 100% of customers out · 90% back in 4.7 days
Hours without power, average customer per year 16h / yr State average 8.3 h · national median 6.6 h
Major outages a year 2.6 Peaks over 10% of customers or 50,000 customers
Typical time to restore 90% 5hours Median across major outages, from the peak
Longest single outage 5.7days Hurricane Florence, over 1% of customers out
Outage hours on storm days 82% Share falling on days with a NOAA storm report here
Worst year 2018 3.0 days without power, average customer
Electricity customers 19,420 ORNL customer model · 8 well-covered years

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 Sampson's customers who were without power at that day's worst moment.

20152016201720182019202020212022202320242025
0%100% of customers out

Year by year

Hours in the dark, per customer

2018 was the worst well-recorded year, at 3.0 days for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.

Sampson, hours without power per customer

SampsonUS median countyNorth Carolina average
0 20 40 60 80 100 10 ’15 88 ’16 4.5 ’17 72 ’18 16 ’19 7.8 ’20 4.3 ’21 9.1 ’22 5.1 ’23 5.3 ’24 4.3 ’25 NC 8.3 US 6.6

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 19,420 100% 5.1 d 4.7 d 1.6M
Sep 15, 2018 Hurricane Florence 19,420 100% 5.7 d 4.5 d 1.1M
Sep 5, 2019 Hurricane Dorian 14,896 77% 24 h 9.5 h 219k
Sep 13, 2018 Hurricane Florence 19,420 100% 23 h 18 h 173k
Feb 17, 2015 Winter storm 5,755 30% 41 h 34 h 111k
Aug 3, 2020 Hurricane Isaias 7,826 40% 16 h 8.2 h 65k
Jul 31, 2021 No storm report 9,347 48% 24 h 22 h 52k
Sep 30, 2022 Hurricane Ian 4,681 24% 31 h 21 h 47k
Dec 24, 2022 No storm report 10,488 54% 11 h 4.5 h 42k
Apr 19, 2019 Thunderstorms 5,795 30% 16 h 7.0 h 28k
May 29, 2017 Thunderstorms 4,269 22% 30 h 24 h 27k
Aug 7, 2024 Hurricane Debby 2,882 15% 15 h 10 h 23k

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.

0% 25% 50% 75% 100% peak+24h+48h+72h+96h half back by +6h 90% by +22h

When it happens

The outage clock

Customer-hours out by month (rings, January innermost) and local hour, 2018–2025.

00061218 Jan inside

What was happening

Weather behind the outages

Each outage is matched to NOAA storm reports for Sampson from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.

  • Tropical storm 75%
  • No storm on record 18%
  • Thunderstorms 5.3%
  • Tornadoes 0.7%

Who keeps the lights on

Utilities serving Sampson

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
South River Elec Member Corp Cooperative 107 85 – 14.6 46k
Four County Elec Member Corp Cooperative 110 82 1.84 15.1 31k
Tri-County Elec Member Corp (NC) Cooperative 89 89 0.65 13.3 23k

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

Across North Carolina

Where it is darkest

Hours / yr64+

All North Carolina counties →

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 19,420 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 →