Power was restored to thousands of homes and businesses in Durham that were without heat for more than 24 hours.

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. By 11 p.m. Thursday, nearly 1,000 homes and businesses were still without power. Power was restored by Friday morning. 

"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," Duke Energy spokesman Jeff Brooks said

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. At 6 p.m. the company said it would be restored around midnight.

"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 at the time.

Brooks said via X that workers were restoring power one line at a time. 

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

Durham opened a warming shelter again Thursday night at the old Northern High School, 117 Tom Wilkinson Rd. The shelter opened at 8 p.m. and  had 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., served as a warming center until 8 p.m. Thursday. Other regional libraries were available until 6 p.m. for residents.