Durham Schools To Open On 1-Hour Delay Wednesday

POSTED: 1:50 p.m. EST December 10, 2002 UPDATED: 6:24 p.m. EST December 10, 2002

DURHAM, N.C. -- It has been almost a week in the dark for many Durham residents as a result of last week's ice storm. Officials say the end is in sight, but some residents say they are waiting to see.

As of 6 p.m. Tuesday, CP&L officials said there are 26,280 outages in the northern region, which includes parts of the Triangle and 4,950 outages in Wake County.

Duke Power officials said they have 256,800 statewides outages with 36,300 outages in Durham County and 16,600 outages remaining in Chapel Hill.

Malik Walthour said he is too cold to talk. To stay warm, he has been under the covers for six days. The 13-year-old has changed the batteries in his Game Boy four times.

"He's ready to scream," said Carol Walthour, Malik's mother.

Carol Walthour lived in her home on Cecil Street in Durham for five years and never used the fireplace until last week. They had to drive all the way to Sanford to find wood.

"I've cried and prayed and I'm glad to have gotten this wood," she said.

The Walthours are some of the Durham residents who are burning mad at Duke Power.

"There's so much anger here, I could explode," she said. "They knew the storm was coming and didn't prepare for it. All of these people have to suffer."

Pete Trimarchi and his Durham neighbors said they are ready to get back to a normal routine. They are even willing to take their trash to the end of the road since trash crews cannot reach them due to downed power lines.

"Our trash pick up is supposed on Mondays, but I don't know if we are going to have to wait until next Monday with that or not," he said.

Duke Power officials said they hope to restore 90 percent of its customers back online by midnight Wednesday.

Duke Power officials also said that customers may end up footing the multimillion-dollar storm repair bill. Company officials said it has not ruled out charging customers.

However, Progress Energy officials said they will not let its customers pick up the tab. The biggest expense for the two companies will be from hiring thousands of extra linemen. They will also have to pay for lines, transformers, and other equipment damaged in the storm.

While many school systems in the Triangle are operating Tuesday on a two-hour delay or proceeding normally, Durham school officials said they kept schools closed. Due to the number of downed power lines, they said they were concerned for the safety of the students. They plan to operate on an one-hour delay Wednesday.

Chapel Hill/Carrboro schools, along with Franklin County and Granville County schools, will operate on a two-hour delay Wednesday.

Several school systems in the area have announced plans for make-up days.

Chapel Hill/Carrboro schools have announced make-up dates for students: January 21, March 14 and March 28.

Wake County traditional students will make up days missed on Feb. 17 and April 21. Officials have not announced makeup days for year-round students.

Traditional students at Durham schools will make up days on Feb. 17, March 14, March 17 and April 21. Year-round students in Durham will make up days on March 10, March 11, March 12 and April 21.

Orange County have not announced plans for make-up dates yet.

Phone and cable companies are also making some serious headway.

BellSouth officials said they should have everyone back on line by Wednesday. BellSouth and Sprint will give its customers billing credits for lost service as long as they ask for them. Verizon Communications officials said they have not decided what to do yet.

Time Warner Cable officials said 88 percent of customers have cable. Officials said they plan to automatically credit customers.

-- Anonymous, December 10, 2002

Answers

Duke Power Customers May Be In the Dark Until Week's End

By Associated Press

Tuesday afternoon, Duke Power released a breakdown of when the company believes power will be restored, and the picture spells more cold nights for North Carolinians. Customers in Durham, Chapel Hill, Burlington, Greensboro, and other areas may not get their electricity restored until the end of the week.

Duke Power officials say northeast Durham, Research Triangle Park, Butner, and Creedmoor won't have power until Friday. The rest of Durham and Chapel Hill may have to wait until Saturday before power is restored. Duke Power could not guarantee that electricity would be restored to 100 percent of its customers by Saturday.

As of Tuesday afternoon, Duke Power reported more than 256,000 of its customers systemwide still do not have power. Of those, more than 16,000 are in Chapel Hill, and more than 36,000 are in Durham.

Duke Power expects the costs of the storm to exceed $24 million, and the company has not ruled out passing that cost on to its customers.

-- Anonymous, December 10, 2002

So what are the main problems with Duke power? Too many overpaid chiefs? Lazy techs? Too much firing/forced retirement of senior engineers? Not enough tree-tirmming, regular maintaining of lines?

We have one problem with AEP: they're forcing out their senior staff and replacing them with brainless 20- and 30-somethings. When we do have a crisis, these youngsters just don't have the experience to design work-arounds.

-- Anonymous, December 10, 2002

I'm guessing they just didn't think it was going to be that bad and when they were faced with it Thursday morning, they had to scramble to find crews--my guess is CP&L and others had already lined up most of the workers. Otherwise, why would we have crews from as far away as Michigan? The only two states I know of working in Durham are Mich and Georgia.

News this morning is that 91% of Duke's customers are already back on line but there are still over 21,000 without in Durham.

-- Anonymous, December 11, 2002

I'll bet Charleston is starting to look better and better. LOL

-- Anonymous, December 11, 2002

Somewhat. Hungarian and I were out roaming today and people everywhere are PO'd. But there's nothing they can (will) do. I don't believe the state regulatory agency has any teeth. Last I heard, they were saying, well, they did the best they could.

-- Anonymous, December 11, 2002