Power Outages in Polk County, NC
Is there a power outage in Polk County, NC right now? Yes. As of October 19, 2026 15:05 UTC, about 1 customers are without power in Polk County, NC across 1 reported incident. There is no live feed for Duke Energy, so outages in their service area aren't counted.
Polk County, NC is served by 4 tracked utilities. In 2025, the average customer here lost power for about 24.7 hours.
Cite this data
- URL
- https://massoutage.com/north-carolina/polk-county
- As of
- October 19, 2026 15:05 UTC
- Publisher
- MassOutage
MassOutage, "Power Outages in Polk County, NC", live data as of October 19, 2026 15:05 UTC. https://massoutage.com/north-carolina/polk-county
Not counted: no live feed for Duke Energy.
Report an outage in Polk County, NC
Report it to your electric utility; MassOutage can't take reports. For a downed line, stay at least 35 feet away and call 911.
No outage contact on file for Duke Energy Carolinas, LLC, Rutherford Elec Member Corp, Duke Energy and Broad River Electric Coop, Inc; check your electric bill or the utility's website.
49%of this county's ~18,039 customers are served by utilities with a county-level live feed.
We can't see outages for: Duke Energy. Their customers are not in any number on this page; check their own outage maps.
| Utility | Feed | Out | Served | % out | Small outages | Incidents | Utility ETR | As of |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Duke Energy Carolinas, LLC | Live · county | 1 | 8,845 | 0.0% | - | - | - | |
| Broad River Electric Coop, Inc | Live · county | 0 | 84 | 0.0% | - | - | - | |
| Rutherford Elec Member Corp | Live · county | 0 | - | - | - | 0 | - | |
| Duke Energy | No live feed | can't see | - | - | - | - | - | - |
Duke Energy Carolinas, LLC, Broad River Electric Coop, Inc and Rutherford Elec Member Corp reportevery town in the county on each poll, so 0 out is a real all-clear. ETRs are the utility's own estimates.
Electricity-dependent residents
HHS emPOWER · data October 7, 2026Medicare beneficiaries in Polk Countywho rely on electricity-dependent medical equipment (ventilators, oxygen concentrators, home dialysis, powered wheelchairs, and more). HHS reports counts of 1–10 as “≤11”. Medicare only, so the full at-risk population is larger.
By ZIP code (4)
| ZIP | Power-dependent | Ventilators | O2 concentrators | Home dialysis |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 28722 | 88 | ≤11 | 62 | 0 |
| 28782 | 62 | ≤11 | 41 | ≤11 |
| 28756 | 46 | ≤11 | 36 | ≤11 |
| 28773 | 43 | 0 | 30 | ≤11 |
Emergency managers can request identified beneficiary lists through their state health department via the HHS emPOWER program.
Outage began, grew, restoration estimate changed, restored: by email, Slack, Teams, Discord or signed webhook, for Polk County or any town and utility in it.
No active NWS alerts for Polk County right now.
Polk County has been under 31 National Weather Service alerts recently, most recently a Frost Advisory on October 18, 2026.
- Flash Flood Warning ×8
- Flood Watch ×7
- Special Weather Statement ×5
- Wind Advisory ×5
- Flood Advisory ×3
- Frost Advisory ×2
Latest Polk County, NC outage updates
A running log of how this outage has changed, updated automatically as utilities report in.
- RESOLVED
Power restored after 5h 25m
- OUTAGE BEGAN
Outage began: 183 customers out (2.1% of the county)
- RESOLVED
Power restored after 8d 4h
- OUTAGE BEGAN
Outage began: 199 customers out (2.2% of the county)
- RESOLVED
Power restored after 7h 56m
- OUTAGE BEGAN
Outage began: 115 customers out (1.3% of the county)
Hardest-hit cities in Polk County
Where this event is concentrated across the county's towns and townships.
Live outage counts are tracked at the county level; a city-by-city split within Polk Countyisn't available yet.
Historical reliability
In 2025, the average customer in Polk County went about 24.7 hours without power. Peak simultaneous outage on record reached 5,215 customers.
The US EIA reports North Carolina utilities averaged 3.3 hrs without power per customer (SAIDI) in 2025, a cross-check on our county estimate of 24.7 hrs.
Worst year here was 2024 (peak 5,215 customers out) · decade average 49.3 hrs without power per customer/yr.
| Year | Outage events | Peak customers out | Avg hrs/customer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 318 | 1,359 | 8.2 |
| 2016 | 335 | 2,964 | 6.2 |
| 2017 | 361 | 3,302 | 30.7 |
| 2018 | 378 | 5,215 | 79.8 |
| 2019 | 453 | 4,593 | 17.8 |
| 2020 | 474 | 5,215 | 79.1 |
| 2021 | 473 | 2,764 | 16.1 |
| 2022 | 460 | 2,849 | 11.7 |
| 2023 | 414 | 3,098 | 23.0 |
| 2024 | 473 | 5,215 | 244.4 |
| 2025 | 488 | 4,869 | 24.7 |
Cost of power in Polk County
ENERGY & AI DEMAND →Estimated residential electricity price for Polk County, customer-weighted across the utilities serving it (US EIA, 2025). Retail prices aren't published at the county level; this is a derived estimate.
- Duke Energy Carolinas, LLC13.4¢1,961,108 cust
- Rutherford Elec Member Corp13.0¢72,060 cust
- Broad River Electric Coop, Inc16.7¢490 cust
Weighted by each utility's residential customer count (utilities report customers at the state level; a per-county share isn't published). Rising retail prices track a national demand surge; see energy & the data-center boom. What that adds up to each month, by state and utility: average electric bill.
Relatively High ice storms exposure · 49.3 hrs/yr of outages over the last decade.
FEMA rates this county’s social vulnerability very high: outages hit harder where communities are less able to respond and recover.
All hazard rankings →Power outages in Polk County: FAQ
- How often does Polk County, NC lose power?
- Based on EAGLE-I records, Polk County, NC logged 488 distinct outage events in 2025, averaging about 24.7 hours without power per customer over the year.
- What was the worst power outage in Polk County, NC?
- The largest tracked outage peaked at 5,215 customers without power, beginning December 8, 2018 and lasting about 5d 7h.
- Is there a power outage in Polk County, NC right now?
- Yes. As of October 19, 2026 15:05 UTC, about 1 customers are without power in Polk County, NC across 1 reported incident. There is no live feed for Duke Energy, so outages in their service area aren't counted.
- Which utilities serve Polk County, NC?
- Tracked electric providers include Duke Energy, Duke Energy Carolinas, LLC, Rutherford Elec Member Corp.
Outages are tracked at the county level; these ZIP codes fall within Polk County.
28722, 28756, 28773, 28782
Electric providers serving this county
From EIA-861 service territory, with official reliability where reported. Territory is filed by county, so these are the utilities with lines anywhere in Polk County, not the one at a given address. All electric companies in North Carolina →
| Provider | Official SAIDI (EIA) | Live | Report outage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Duke Energy Carolinas, LLC | 3.6 hrs | Live · county | - |
| Rutherford Elec Member Corp | 2.5 hrs | Live · county | - |
| Duke Energy | - | No live feed | - |
| Broad River Electric Coop, Inc | - | Live · county | - |
Data from DOE/ORNL ODIN, DOE EAGLE-I, EIA Form 861 (utility reliability), EIA electricity retail prices and FEMA National Risk Index, every source we read. Historical figures derive from the DOE/ORNL EAGLE-I dataset (EAGLE-I tracked roughly 0% of North Carolina customers). Machine-readable data: /api/v1/counties/37149 and /api/v1/counties/37149/history. Live data as of .