Power crews on standby to restore power in Carolinas
ATLANTA - Georgia Power and the respective Georgia EMCs are on standby to help restore power to areas of the Carolinas after Hurricane Florence makes landfall.
Forecasters at the University of Michigan predict that 2.4 million people will lose power from Hurricane Florence and some outages could be prolonged.
That's about one-fourth the number who suffered outages from Hurricane Sandy, which hit a more populated area around New Jersey in 2012.
COMPLETE COVERAGE: Hurricane Florence
Seth Guikema is an associate professor of engineering at Michigan. He says outages could be more widespread if Florence veers north or stalls, leading to flooding.
The estimate is based on the National Hurricane Center's forecast for Florence's path and wind speeds.
Duke Energy spokeswoman Grace Rountree says the utility doesn't forecast outages but is "anticipating significant widespread outages from a storm of this magnitude."
She says the company is bringing in up to 2,000 workers from Florida and the Midwest to augment its 4,600 workers in North Carolina and South Carolina.
Duke has 4 million customers in the Carolinas.
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The Associated Press contributed to this report.