Trees, traffic lights still problem in Triangle. Hard-hit Durham areas wait for power.

Thousands of businesses, schools and residents across the Triangle remained without power Wednesday, dodging downed trees and cleaning up after Tuesday’s massive storm.

Durham County opened several cooling stations so people without power could find relief. Cooling stations will available at most Durham Public Library locations through Thursday evening, and at the Weaver Street Recreation Center, at 3000 Weaver St., a county alert said.

Tuesday’s storm packed sustained winds of up to 53 mph and gusts of up to 72 mph at the National Weather Service’s Durham-Chapel Hill station. The temperature in the Raleigh-Durham hit a daily record of 100 degrees, inching past the previous high for an August 15 of 99 degrees, recorded in 2007.

By 11:15 p.m. Tuesday, more than 60,000 Duke Energy customers had lost power. A woman was killed when a tree fell on her car, and thousands of drivers were left snarled in traffic after a 32-car pileup on Interstate 40 at the height of the storm.

By 8:45 p.m. Wednesday, over 18,000 Duke Energy customers still had no power, with most of those customers — 18,243 — in Durham County. Duke Energy was estimating that Durham County customers could see power fully restored by 2:30 a.m. Thursday.

But Durham Public Schools canceled classes for the second day for students in year-round and specialty schools. Employees will be on a two-hour delay, the district announced on social media.

Orange County had 191 customers without power, while power was nearly restored in Wake and Johnston counties. Orange County customers could see the lights come by 11:45 p.m. Wednesday, the utility said.

Wake Electric Membership Corp. reported roughly 129 of its customers in Durham County remained without power. Fewer than a dozen Piedmont Electric Membership Corp. customers in Orange County still lacked power, the company said.

‘Wind bomb,’ complex problems

The storm that hit Durham County “was like wind bomb,” Duke Energy spokesman Jeff Brooks said. “It went off, and it caused a lot of damage.”

Additional crews from around the Carolinas arrived Wednesday to repair damaged trees, power lines and poles, he said, plus about 1,000 line and tree workers. About 600 were dispatched to Durham, while the rest spread across three counties, from Greensboro to Chapel Hill, he said.

They are now in what they call the “grind,” Brooks said, when small outages of 30 to 50 customers remain, but each repair can still take several hours. It’s also not uncommon for property owners to see their lights flicker or briefly gain power, only to lose it again, he said. That’s because the necessary repair may not be obvious, or the crew may have another problem elsewhere affecting the grid, he said.

Some areas also may have more damage because of trees weakened by an Aug. 7 storm.

“It’s frustrating. You get excited, you see the crews there, and they finish repairs and they turn the power back on and it comes on and then comes back out,” Brooks said.

“What we’ve seen here in Durham County in particular is just a tremendous amount of physical damage to the grid. Big trees that are down on the lines and causing a lot of broken poles and lines on the ground.”

Schools, businesses, traffic

The power outages forced Durham Public Schools to keep students home Wednesday, while staff at year-round and specialty high schools and central services offices were on a two-hour delay. Durham Technical Community College closed its Duke Street North campus Wednesday.

Some Durham businesses resorted to taking cash-only orders — in person — while they waited for phone and internet service to be restored.

Foster’s lost power for five hours Tuesday night, said Matt Griffith, assistant general manager at Foster’s Market in Durham. Around 4 p.m., they loaded perishables into a walk-in cooler that operates on a generator behind the business when the electricity goes out.

Customers have been kind, Griffith told The News & Observer.

“Luckily, we live in a supportive community and people know us,” he said. “I think some people are just happy to have hot coffee, too.”

Photos: Fallen trees, power outages left in wake of Triangle storms

Donna Warsaw, 78, of Hillsborough was killed Tuesday when a large tree fell on her car as she was driving north on Anderson Street around 4:20 p.m., near the Lakewood neighborhood.

Two additional collisions involving 32 cars on Interstate 40 near The Streets at Southpoint mall were reported around 5 p.m. Tuesday. Parts of the interstate remained closed until just after 8 p.m., leaving thousands of rush-hour drivers stuck in traffic or seeking alternate routes.

The State Highway Patrol and Durham police are investigating the collisions, Highway Patrol officials said in an email Wednesday. There were no reports of major injuries or fatalities, they said.

After the record-setting 100 degrees Tuesday, the National Weather Service said . temperatures were expected to fall significantly as a cold front moved into the area Wednesday, with a high of only about 88 degrees expected by afternoon. Isolated storms are possible over the next few days, the NWS reported.

Cooling, cell charging stations

The following locations are offering public bathrooms, air-conditioning and cell phone charging in Durham and Orange counties:

Durham County

All public libraries, except for the Stanford L. Warren Branch Library and the Bragtown Library Family Literacy Center, will be open until 8 p.m. Wednesday and from 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thursday. Durham County’s Main Library is the only one offering cell phone charging stations.

The Weaver Street Recreation Center, at 3000 Weaver St., is also open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.

▪ Main Library, 300 N. Roxboro St.

▪ East Regional Library, 211 Lick Creek Lane

▪ North Regional Library, 211 Milton Road

▪ South Regional Library, 4505 S. Alston Ave.

▪ Southwest Regional Library, 3605 Shannon Road

Orange County

Libraries in Hillsborough, Carrboro and Chapel Hill, along with the Inter-Faith Council for Social Service, Weaver Street Market and recreation centers countywide are available this week if residents need somewhere to take a break.

More information and a list of what’s available at each location can be found at ocpehnc.com/resources.

Report power out, tree damage

Durham County officials have asked residents to stay away from downed trees and branches that may be tangled with power lines. Residents should call 911 if a downed tree is creating an immediate threat, they said.

Otherwise, residents can reported damaged trees on city-maintained streets to the Durham Emergency Communications Center non-emergency line at 919-560-4600 or the Durham One Call center during regular business hours.

Property owners are responsible for trees that fall on private property, including driveways, apartment access roads, parking lots and sidewalks.

Anyone still having trouble with their electricity service or with downed power lines can contact:

▪ Duke Energy Progress: Report outages online or by calling 1-800-POWER-ON or 1-800-419-6356. An outage map is being updated at the Duke Energy website or customers can sign up for alerts.

▪ Piedmont Electric Membership Corp.: Report an outage via SmartHub or by calling 1-800-222-3107. Piedmont EMC provides more details about outages at restoration updates map.

Durham, Chapel Hill roads closed

Emergency crews and police were still opening roads, removing downed trees and repairing power lines Wednesday morning. Durham police urged drivers to exercise caution throughout the day and treat intersections where the traffic lights are out as four-way stops.

Police also asked that drivers heed road closure signs by choosing another route and not driving past barricades or signs. Additional road closures are possible, and updates are being posted online, they said. Officers are directing traffic in some heavily traveled areas.

“Barricades have been placed at these locations to protect the public. Walking or driving past barricades or crime scene tape can expose you to extremely hazardous conditions,” police said in a news release Wednesday.

Chapel Hill, Carrboro roads

Chapel Hill police and power crews were able to reopen Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, between Homestead Road and Estes Drive Wednesday morning, after a fallen tree and power lines forced traffic onto nearby streets.

N.C. Department of Transportation and Duke Energy crews, meanwhile, continued to work Wednesday to reopen Jones Ferry Road in downtown Carrboro, where a tree was blocking the West Main Street intersection.

These roads remained closed at 11 a.m. Wednesday:

▪ Shady Lawn Road at Eastwood Drive

▪ North Street at Boundary Street

▪ Sugarberry Road

▪ Jones Ferry Road at West Main Street

Durham roads

Police have reported road closures at:

▪ 1000 block of Hyde Park Avenue

▪ North Driver Street and Liberty Street

▪ Railroad Street and Liberty Street

▪ Angier Avenue and Wrenn Road

▪ 1100 block of North Miami Boulevard

▪ North Elizabeth Street and Liberty Street

▪ 1500 block of Robinhood Road

▪ Morehead Avenue between Chapel Hill Road and Anderson Street

▪ Fayetteville Road and Juliette Drive

▪ 3000 block of East Weaver Street

▪ Morehead between Chapel Hill Road and Norwood Avenue

▪ Guess Road and Hillandale Road at the Interstate 85 exits

▪ Farrington Road between Ridgefield Drive and Dunbrook Drive

▪ Lincoln Street at Linwood Avenue

Police are directing traffic at some locations. Motorists were also warned to watch for traffic lights out at:

▪ Duke Street and Horton Road

▪ North Roxboro Street and Duke Street, Horton Road, Carver Street and Old Oxford Road

▪ Guess Road and Latta Road, Horton Road, Broad Street

▪ West Club Boulevard and Broad Street

▪ Durham-Chapel Hill Boulevard and Garrett Road

▪ N.C. 54 at Quadrangle Drive, Interstate 40, Farrington Road and Huntington Ridge

▪ Anderson Street at Erwin Road

▪ University Drive at Old Chapel Hill Road and Academy Road

▪ Academy Road at Durham-Chapel Hill Boulevard, Pickett Road, Woodburn Road and Duke University Road

▪ Chapel Hill Road at Cornwallis Road

▪ West Markham Avenue at Ninth Street

▪ East Main Street at Elizabeth Street

▪ West Main Street at Gregson Street, Morgan Street and Buchanan Boulevard

▪ West Chapel Hill Street at South Gregson Street and West Pettigrew Street

▪ West Trinity Avenue at North Gregson Street

▪ West Morgan Street at North Duke Street and North Gregson Street

▪ Cheek Road at U.S. 70, Midland Terrace and Hardee Street

‘Destructive’ winds, weather alerts

Neighbors and passers-by stopped what they were doing to help Tuesday night, including Thomas S., who stopped to talk with The N&O while pulling branches off the streets with his black Dodge pickup truck Tuesday night.

The air was humid and thick with the scent of pine as first responders, tow trucks and city and power company crews spread out looking for problems.

“It’s been craziness. It’s just been trees down everywhere, said Thomas S., who declined to share his last name as he stopped to take a cigarette break on West Club Boulevard. He was slowly making his way home, from Glennstone Road to Hillsborough Road, clearing trees along the way, Thomas said.

“Just being a Good Samaritan and trying to get home at the same time,” he said.

The type of damage left behind is just as important as towers posted across the Triangle when determining wind speeds after a storm, National Weather Service meteorologist Aaron Swiggett said Wednesday. The towers only measure gusts at their location, he said.

“It’s not often that we issue destructive severe thunderstorm warnings, and that one was certainly one that warranted it. That’s for sure,” Swiggett said.

A recent update to the NWS alert system now includes a “destructive tag” when wind speeds reach 80 mph or more. The system sends an alert to all wireless systems in the area when triggered, pinging individual cell phone users, Swiggett said.

It’s similar to the tornado warnings that already go out when a twister is spotted, he said.

“We’ve had plenty of people reach out to us saying they got the alert on their phone, and they were able to take action and head inside,” Swiggett said.

Families seek shelter, cell service

Durham resident Heather Fisher was startled by how quickly the storm popped up. She watched as trash cans flew across Old Chapel Hill Road, construction debris was carried off site, and branches snapped from the trees in southwest Durham, she said Wednesday.

Her husband and their two young children took shelter at their home in northern Durham.

“It started raining. The winds got so strong and so crazy that they went to the bathroom, because he was worried about the trees,” Fisher said.

A Bradford pear tree in their yard came down, but didn’t cause any damage.

Like many other Durhamites, the Fishers lost cell service Tuesday evening. Other users have complained about not being able to send texts, calls dropping and trouble loading websites, making it additionally difficult to get information.

“It’s been real spotty,” Fisher said about her Verizon cell phone service. “There have been times when I had zero service at all.”

And they still don’t have power, she said.

“They originally said 7 a.m., but now there’s no estimate,” Fisher said.

Orange County trees, roads

Winds also caused severe damage Tuesday night in parts of central and southern Orange County.

Carrboro town officials announced Wednesday afternoon that a pedestrian bridge across Bolin Creek near Chapel Hill High School will be closed for an extended period after being hit by one of several trees that fell during the storm.

Another tree down at the intersection of Main Street and Jones Ferry Road, in front of the CommunityWorx thrift shop, is tangled up with power lines, Carrboro officials said. The N.C. Department of Transportation is coordinating with Duke Energy to fix the problem.

To the north, homeowners and emergency responders were cleaning up after Orange Rural Fire Department in Hillsborough responded to several calls about downed trees Tuesday night.

Some of those trees also were twisted up with power lines, particularly along Old N.C. 86 near UNC Hospitals and Waterstone Drive and along Davis Road just south of town, the fire department reported.

Additional reports said there were trees down along Orange Grove Road and in the White Cross community west of Carrboro.

Orange County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Alicia Stemper said Wednesday that county roads appeared to be open and back to normal. At least two homes — and maybe more — were damaged by falling trees and wind near Orange Grove Road and Dairyland Road, Stemper and fire department officials said.

No injuries were reported, they said, but “the recovery from this storm will take longer for many families,” Orange Rural fire officials said in a Facebook post.

The power at their home on Davis Road was restored around 4 a.m. Wednesday, Orange County resident Christie Hilliard said. The sound of the TV and the lights coming back on woke them up, but they were “very glad,” she said.

The wind took a shutter off their house and caused “a pretty good hit” to two old barns that had sentimental value. It “demolished” the chicken pen, she said, but the chickens are safe.

“I called my dad (Tuesday) and said, ‘I’m pretty sure one of my chickens is going to blow by your house. Can you catch it?’ ” she said.

But it was sad Wednesday morning to walk the property and see multiple trees felled where her father-in-law, who recently died, had long carved out hiking and four-wheeler trails for the family to enjoy, she said.

“There’s more than a dozen huge trees that have just come — root ball and all — just blown over. It looks like a war zone back there,” Hilliard said.. “It’s really depressing.”

Staff writer Colleen Hammond contributed to this report.