Severe storms and strong winds in North and South Carolina on Sunday morning had caused power outage to more than 42,000 customers of Duke Energy (NYSE:DUK) and hundreds more of Broad River Electric Co-Op's customers.

Due to difficult weather, not only Duke and Broad River, other local electricity providers also experienced power lost with lower number of customers affected.

The crews from the companies are now working to ensure making power available again during these hard times. Previously, Duke Energy has filed $1.1 billion for cost on the emergency response and recovery afterHurricane Helene and other force majeures that impacted Duke Energy in the past months.

• Warning! GuruFocus has detected 7 Warning Signs with DUK.

Unpredicted storm events could lead to heavy expenses on restoration to energy companies like Duke Energy and therefore adequate amount of cash is important as a safety cushion to protect the overall financial position during unpredictable hard times.

Duke Energy has long been not in a good shape of its financial position with debt highly topping its cash amount. The recent storms not only knock out the power of thousands but also potentially knock out the balance sheet of Duke Energy too.

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