Hurricane season began June 1, and experts predict 2006 will be active. Progress Energy Carolinas is prepared, with lessons learned during the 2005 season, which brought with it some of the most powerful and destructive hurricanes in history.

Progress Energy has a detailed plan in place to activate employees directly involved with power restoration and mobilize thousands of other employees who have storm-specific duties. Employees perform a variety of jobs during storms, from arranging staging and logistical details to assessing storm damage, answering customer calls, designing engineering plans for repairs and reconstruction and, most visibly, repairing damage and restoring power throughout the company's 34,000-square-mile service area.

Progress Energy customers who lose power should call the 24-hour automated outage line at 800-419-6356. This service provides the same information available from our customer service associates and is the fastest way to report a power outage. This technology also offers an option to allow customers to receive a call when new information becomes available regarding power restoration.

This state-of-the-art technology helped Progress Energy answer more than 2.1 million phone calls during the busy 2004 hurricane season. It is also capable of taking more than 125,000 calls per hour during widespread outages. Law enforcement and emergency agencies ask that customers not call local 911 emergency services to report power outages, unless the outage involves a downed power line that could cause injuries.

While the 2005 hurricane season was relatively quiet along the Carolinas coast, it was very active elsewhere, and provided numerous opportunities for Progress Energy to refine its storm plan in responding to large-scale storms in Louisiana and Texas.

For its role in aiding companies and citizens in the Gulf Coast region after the devastating 2005 hurricanes, Progress Energy won the Edison Electric Institute (EEI) Emergency Assistance Award. Progress Energy is no stranger to EEI honors, having earned the Emergency Response Award (for response to storms within the company's service area) a record five times in the program's eight- year history. Progress Energy took home that honor in 1998 (for Hurricane Bonnie), 1999 (Hurricane Floyd), 2000 (January storm), 2002 (December ice storm) and again after the record 2004 hurricane season in Florida.

The company uses each storm restoration as an opportunity to make improvements in storm restoration, from pre-storm communication and preparation to damage assessments and repairs.

"We know that living in the Carolinas means the threat of major storms, and we drill and prepare throughout the year to provide the safest, fastest response possible for our 1.4 million customers if and when that response is needed," said Lee Mazzocchi, system storm coordinator. "Of course, it's also important for our customers to be prepared for storm season, and we encourage customers to make those hurricane plans now."