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Hurricane Florence winds dropped a gas station cover in Wilmington, North Carolina, as the storm nears the coast.
USA TODAY & # 39; HUI

Power cuts Hurricane Florence, which hit ground Friday morning in North Carolina, has exceeded 500,000 customers.

This is according to the data of poweroutage.us, which follows the US power grid. Most blackouts occur in North Carolina, although many thousands of people do not have electricity in South Carolina.

The number of breakdowns should continue to increase. The Weather Channel has estimated that up to 3 million customers could lose their power in the Carolinas because of Florence.

Duke Energy, which provides electricity to customers in eastern North Carolina, has approximately 300,000 customers without electricity. This represents 30% of the customers in this service area.

(A "client" does not necessarily equate to a person – this may include a house where many people live or a business where many people are employed.)

According to the Duke Energy website, there is no timetable for food restoration, noting that it "depends on the impacts of the storm".

The North Carolina Emergency Department advised residents Friday morning, "If your food is cut off, DO NOT run gasoline generators or charcoal grills in or near your home.

More: Hurricane Florence: What you need in the event of a disaster

Track: Where is Hurricane Florence?

US Secretary of Energy Rick Perry said the US electricity sector was well prepared for Hurricane Florence as hundreds of thousands of homes lost power in the storm.

During a visit to Moscow less than an hour after the hurricane in North Carolina, Perry said: "We have done this many times. We know how to manage expectations. We know how to prepare our factories for these types of major events.

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