Columbus County, North Carolina Power Outages, 2015 to 2023

Columbus County, North Carolina had 17 major outages from 2015 to 2023

Higher outage time among US counties

Residents here averaged 4.20 times the US outage time per person and 3.42 times the North Carolina rate. It ranks 2 of 95 in the state, where 1 has the most. Data confidence: High, with 9 years of records.

1.9major outages per year

8 of 9years with a major outage

280 hrslongest major outage

Sep, Octhardest months

September and October made up 90% of this county's outage time. The largest outage on record began Sep 15, 2018, reached 28,889 customers, and left at least 200 customers out for 227.8 hours.

Outage time per resident, rated North Carolina counties

MostLeast

Outage impact by year

Customer-hours without power. 1,000 customers out for 2 hours is 2,000 customer-hours.

2015'152016'162017'172018'182019'192020'202021'212022'222023'23

Show yearly numbers

Year	Customer-hours	Reported outages	Major outages
2015	34,258	27	2
2016	1,782,519	45	1
2017	56,464	30	1
2018	2,211,558	51	4
2019	77,615	33	1
2020	140,571	37	3
2021	21,762	25	0
2022	254,069	31	4
2023	46,852	36	1

When outages hit

Share of this county's customer-hours by month.

20%

40%

60%

80%

JanJFebFMarMAprAMayMJunJJulJAugASepSOctONovNDecD

Largest outages on record

Start date	Hours	Peak customers	Customer-hours
Sep 15, 2018	227.8	28,889	1,913,444
Oct 8, 2016	280.2	28,403	1,694,670
Sep 14, 2018	16.2	28,078	251,349
Sep 30, 2022	33.2	10,697	147,030
Aug 4, 2020	35.8	7,803	94,776

Hours measure how long at least 200 customers in the county were out. Most customers get power back sooner.

Size your backup battery

Start with what you would keep running. Wattages are typical averages, so check your own appliances.

Phones, Wi-Fi, lights, about 60 WRefrigerator, about 60 WChest freezer, about 40 WGas furnace fan, about 160 W

Hours to cover: 24

1,700 Whof battery capacity, allowing for about 15% conversion loss

If anyone relies on medical equipment, plan that with their provider. Run portable fuel generators outdoors only, at least 20 feet from doors, windows and vents. See the outage checklist.

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How to read this

A major outage lasted at least 8 hours and reached customers equal to at least 1% of county residents.
Records cover outages of at least 200 customers in a county. They do not show what happened on your street.
Utilities that do not report can make a county look better than it is. Data ends in 2023. Read the full method.