Local energy companies are working to restore power for nearly 1,300 Jackson County residents without power as a result of storms this afternoon.

Storms brought heavy rain and strong gusts of wind, which caused trees throughout the county to fall over power lines.

Jackson County REMC and Duke Energy have reported that 1,290 customers are still without power. That’s a significant improvement from the the 2,470 without power earlier in the day.

The bulk of those without power, 944, are Jackson County REMC customers.

The provider said trees were still down over power lines on its Facebook page. The statement also read that some customers will likely experience outages overnight.

In addition to the power outages, the company is experiencing phone problems and is encouraging customers to report outages through its SmartHub application.

The company provided instructions to set up the application on a mobile device on its Facebook page.

Duke Energy, which reports 362 without power, estimates the latest restoration will be at 10 p.m., according to its website.

Residents should not touch or attempt to move or cut trees that are touching power lines.