The heavy snow has left thousands of Duke Energy customers across the county without power.

Most of the outages are in Spencer, East Spencer, the northeast section of Salisbury out Old Mocksville Road and also the area south of Rockwell and west of Gold Hill, according to Duke Energy’s outage map.

Around 10:30 a.m., nearly 2,500 customers were reported being without power in the Rockwell-Gold Hill area, but that figure is now around 100.

A Duke Energy spokeswoman said the total number of outages in Rowan County was around 5,000 as of 11:15 a.m. Most of the outages are in the eastern part of the county,

Tree limbs breaking off due to the heavy snow and falling on power lines seems to be the main cause of the outages, which total in the hundreds of thousands across the state.

Outages were also reported in China Grove and off Highway 152 west of Landis.

Across Rowan County, 5 to 8 inches of snow fell throughout Wednesday night and Thursday morning.

Spencer Town Manager Larry Smith was out assessing the damage Thursday morning and said in an email, “Power’s out around town including most of the downtown, trees and power lines down in several places.”

He said crews were working on assessing the power outage on Charles Street a while ago, and then they were supposed to head toward downtown to track the outage there.

In downtown Salisbury, things seemed quite normal as the roads were clear and full of traffic. Businesses were open on Main Street and down toward Interstate 85. Main roads around the city are in relatively good condition and the city’s snow plows are working neighborhood streets.

Salisbury Fire Chief Bob Parnell said crews were working through the night. He said he’s been to most of the neighborhoods in the city and that things are looking good.

He said some fallen tree limbs brought down power lines on the roads. He said once Duke Energy workers clear the power lines, city workers will remove the tree debris.

Contact Reporter David Purtell at 704-797-4264.