As Hurricane Helene tore through Western North Carolina with high winds and heavy, steady rainfall, the power outages and the road closures began.

As of 12:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 27, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper reported that there were more than 300 roads closed in the state of North Carolina and more than 900,000 power outages, according to Duke Energy.

Duke Energy sent the following message to customers at around 8:30 p.m. on Friday:

Crews have uncovered catastrophic damage left behind by Helene, which will require extensive repairs. If you do not yet have an estimated time of restoration, you'll receive an update by mid-day tomorrow, which you can view at duk.us/05. We greatly appreciate your patience.

Bill Norton with Duke Energy told News 13 that more than 452,000 homes in Western North Carolina were without power. It could be several hours before crews can even begin to work on the outages, he said.

"Given the breadth of the damage, tropical force winds are still bringing down trees as we speak, and winds are too high for lineworkers to operate – for safety reasons," he said. "They cannot be up on a pole or in a bucket truck when winds are above 30 mph. "This will be a multi-day restoration process."

Nortton said some customers could have power restored later today, but it will take multiple days to repair the hardest-hit areas.

As of 3 p.m. on Friday, the French Broad Electric Membership Corporation said 40,000 of its 42,000 customers were without power.

To see current outages, go to or .