It will likely be another cold night in East Durham. As of Thursday evening, there were still almost 8,000 homes and businesses without power in Durham, according to Duke Energy. The company said it hopes to get the lights, and the heat, back on by 2 a.m. Friday.

More than 10,000 Duke Energy customers lost power Wednesday afternoon. Duke initially said it would have power restored by midnight as temperatures dipped well below freezing.

On Thursday afternoon, the company said power should be restored by 6 p.m., but then pushed that time back to 7:15 p.m., then back another hour, and then to 2 a.m.

“We understand how frustrating it is to be without power when it is so cold. We’re working hard to complete repairs and get power restored,” Duke Energy spokesman Jeff Brooks said on X, formerly known as Twitter.

“We’re also looking for options to switch some customers to other lines to restore service until we complete repairs,” he said. 

Duke’s outage map showed 7,966 customers without power in Durham as of about 5 p.m. Thursday. 

“Damage to equipment in the station was more extensive than originally thought. Crews worked throughout the night, but need to adjust the estimated restoration time,” Brooks said. 

Seven schools in Durham canceled class on Thursday because of the outage. 

Durham will open a warming shelter again Thursday night if the power outage continues. The shelter is at the old Northern High School, 117 Tom Wilkinson Rd. The shelter will open at 8 p.m. and will have food and cots for up to 150 people.

“GoDurham will provide free transportation to the emergency shelter from their Wellons Village bus stop,” the city said. 

The Durham County Main Library, at 300 N. Roxboro St., will serve as a warming center until 8 p.m. Thursday. Other regional libraries will be available until 6 p.m. for residents.