Storms prompt alerts, black out parts of mainland

A line of thunderstorms put several counties in northeastern North Carolina under warnings for Sunday afternoon, and high winds knocked out three transmission structures on the mainland.

The structures, owned by Dominion power, feed Tideland EMC customers north of the Pamlico River.

About 9,000 Tideland customers in Beaufort, Hyde and Washington counties lost power, which will not be restored until late Monday night. The cooperative also serves areas of Craven and Dare counties.

Dominion Power reported that about 3,600 customers also lost electricity in outages scattered around the mainland.

As the line of storms moved southeast, most of the rain and wind stayed below Oregon Inlet.

No serious damage was immediately reported along the Outer Banks by the National Weather Service.

Hot weather will continue through the week with high temperatures along the coast at around 90 degrees. The Weather Service puts the chances of thunderstorms each day at about 30 percent.

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