Power Outages in Wilkes County, NC
Is there a power outage in Wilkes County, NC right now? Yes. As of October 19, 2026 15:10 UTC, about 1 customers are without power in Wilkes County, NC across 1 reported incident. There is no live feed for Duke Energy, so outages in their service area aren't counted.
Wilkes County, NC is served by 5 tracked utilities. In 2025, the average customer here lost power for about 4.2 hours.
Cite this data
- URL
- https://massoutage.com/north-carolina/wilkes-county
- As of
- October 19, 2026 15:10 UTC
- Publisher
- MassOutage
MassOutage, "Power Outages in Wilkes County, NC", live data as of October 19, 2026 15:10 UTC. https://massoutage.com/north-carolina/wilkes-county
Not counted: no live feed for Duke Energy.
Report an outage in Wilkes 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, EnergyUnited Elec Member Corp, Blue Ridge Elec Member Corp - (NC), Surry-Yadkin Elec Member Corp and Duke Energy; check your electric bill or the utility's website.
80%of this county's ~45,606 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 | 30,153 | 0.0% | - | - | - | |
| Surry-Yadkin Elec Member Corp | Live · county | 0 | 4,212 | 0.0% | - | - | - | |
| EnergyUnited Elec Member Corp | Live · county | 0 | 2,233 | 0.0% | - | - | - | |
| Blue Ridge Elec Member Corp - (NC) | Live · county | 0 | - | - | - | 0 | - | |
| Duke Energy | No live feed | can't see | - | - | - | - | - | - |
Duke Energy Carolinas, LLC, Surry-Yadkin Elec Member Corp, EnergyUnited Elec Member Corp and Blue Ridge Elec Member Corp - (NC) 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 Wilkes 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 (13)
| ZIP | Power-dependent | Ventilators | O2 concentrators | Home dialysis |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 28659 | 457 | 17 | 402 | ≤11 |
| 28697 | 247 | ≤11 | 218 | ≤11 |
| 28651 | 151 | ≤11 | 134 | 0 |
| 28635 | 105 | ≤11 | 88 | 0 |
| 28670 | 78 | ≤11 | 67 | ≤11 |
| 28669 | 72 | ≤11 | 59 | ≤11 |
| 28654 | 71 | ≤11 | 57 | 0 |
| 28606 | 58 | ≤11 | 47 | 0 |
| 28665 | 57 | ≤11 | 51 | ≤11 |
| 28685 | 52 | ≤11 | 47 | ≤11 |
| 28624 | 34 | 0 | 28 | 0 |
| 28689 | 25 | ≤11 | 22 | 0 |
| 28649 | 20 | ≤11 | 17 | 0 |
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 Wilkes County or any town and utility in it.
No active NWS alerts for Wilkes County right now.
Wilkes County has been under 28 National Weather Service alerts recently, most recently a Frost Advisory on October 18, 2026.
- Special Weather Statement ×10
- Flood Advisory ×9
- Flood Warning ×4
- Flood Watch ×4
- Frost Advisory ×1
Latest Wilkes County, NC outage updates
A running log of how this outage has changed, updated automatically as utilities report in.
- RESOLVED
Power restored after 1h 16m
- OUTAGE BEGAN
Outage began: 616 customers out (1.7% of the county)
- RESOLVED
Power restored after 1h
- OUTAGE BEGAN
Outage began: 1,353 customers out (17% of the county)
- RESOLVED
Power restored after 2h 25m
- OUTAGE BEGAN
Outage began: 205 customers out (2.5% of the county)
Hardest-hit cities in Wilkes 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 Wilkes Countyisn't available yet.
Historical reliability
In 2025, the average customer in Wilkes County went about 4.2 hours without power. Peak simultaneous outage on record reached 25,695 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 4.2 hrs.
Worst year here was 2024 (peak 22,628 customers out) · decade average 9.5 hrs without power per customer/yr.
| Year | Outage events | Peak customers out | Avg hrs/customer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 594 | 1,883 | 2.1 |
| 2016 | 688 | 23,217 | 19.9 |
| 2017 | 694 | 25,695 | 20.5 |
| 2018 | 651 | 3,772 | 6.8 |
| 2019 | 725 | 3,917 | 3.1 |
| 2020 | 696 | 9,834 | 5.7 |
| 2021 | 767 | 1,491 | 1.7 |
| 2022 | 822 | 3,392 | 4.1 |
| 2023 | 787 | 5,176 | 3.3 |
| 2024 | 752 | 22,628 | 33.5 |
| 2025 | 782 | 7,053 | 4.2 |
Cost of power in Wilkes County
ENERGY & AI DEMAND →Estimated residential electricity price for Wilkes 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
- EnergyUnited Elec Member Corp11.6¢124,446 cust
- Blue Ridge Elec Member Corp - (NC)14.9¢72,320 cust
- Surry-Yadkin Elec Member Corp17.5¢28,296 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 · 9.5 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 Wilkes County: FAQ
- How often does Wilkes County, NC lose power?
- Based on EAGLE-I records, Wilkes County, NC logged 782 distinct outage events in 2025, averaging about 4.2 hours without power per customer over the year.
- What was the worst power outage in Wilkes County, NC?
- The largest tracked outage peaked at 25,695 customers without power, beginning October 23, 2017 and lasting about 4d 10h.
- Is there a power outage in Wilkes County, NC right now?
- Yes. As of October 19, 2026 15:10 UTC, about 1 customers are without power in Wilkes 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 Wilkes County, NC?
- Tracked electric providers include Blue Ridge Elec Member Corp - (NC), Duke Energy, Duke Energy Carolinas, LLC, EnergyUnited Elec Member Corp, Surry-Yadkin Elec Member Corp.
Outages are tracked at the county level; these ZIP codes fall within Wilkes County.
28606, 28624, 28635, 28649, 28651, 28654, 28659, 28665, 28669, 28670, 28685, 28697
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 Wilkes 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 | - |
| EnergyUnited Elec Member Corp | 2.8 hrs | Live · county | - |
| Blue Ridge Elec Member Corp - (NC) | 9.0 hrs | Live · county | - |
| Surry-Yadkin Elec Member Corp | 4.2 hrs | Live · county | - |
| Duke Energy | - | No live feed | - |
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/37193 and /api/v1/counties/37193/history. Live data as of .