IAN’S IMPACT

Chatham mostly spared by hurricane

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Winds and rain from Hurricane Ian — which was downgraded to a post-tropical cyclone by the time its impact reached Chatham County early Saturday morning — felled trees and powerlines and created widespread power outages, according to Steve Newton, the county’s emergency management director.

More than 15,000 power outages were reported in the county on Saturday morning by Duke Energy, Central EMC and Randolph EMC, the utilities which provide power to Chatham residents. By Sunday morning, that number was down to about 1,700, and most of those were restored by day’s end.

“I encourage residents to use this storm and power outage to assess their own preparedness for future emergencies,” Newton told the News + Record. “How did they stay informed of the changing conditions? Did they have working flashlights, basic supplies and shelf-stable food to stay safe while crews restored power?”

Newton said preparedness information is available online at www.readync.gov and www.readychatham.org.