Ice storm questions lobbed at Duke Power (hearing)

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By C.D. KIRKPATRICK : The Herald-Sun ckirkpatrick@heraldsun.com Dec 20, 2002 : 12:22 am ET

DURHAM --

The big question: Why did it seem to take so long for Duke Power to respond to the Dec. 4 ice storm that knocked out power to 108,000 residents in Durham?

The second most popular question: Why can’t the power company run its lines underground, away from falling tree limbs?

More than 100 people turned out for a hearing in Durham City Hall on Thursday night, one in a series the N.C. Utilities Commission is holding across the region to examine power companies’ response to the ice storm. The crowd split nearly evenly between those supporting Duke Power and those whose questions implied Durham was shortchanged as repairs were made. About 109,000 or 93 percent of Duke Power customers in Durham lost power and 38,800 in Chapel Hill.

"I think Duke management missed the boat by a mile on this one," said Jerry Barbour, who lives off of Mineral Springs Road in rural eastern Durham County. "I have a problem with being told I’m a low priority. I was just as cold and tired as everyone else. If I live to be 100 years old, I will never forget how badly Duke missed the boat on this one."

Those on the panel listening to comments included Mike Wilkins, a utility commissioner and former state representative from Roxboro.

Mayor Bill Bell said the storm brought Durham to an "abrupt and frigid halt." He rattled off a series of questions about Duke Power’s staffing levels in Durham and criticized the lack of communication during the crisis between the company and local officials and customers.

The power company agreed it could improve the communication aspect of its emergency response.

Bell and others, such as County Commissioner Becky Heron, asked whether linemen were pulled away from Durham to service other areas first or whether Duke has fewer employees in the area now compared with 10 years ago, as some suspect.

Duke Power presented charts and graphs to defend itself and E.O. Ferrell, a senior vice president, said the company did all that it could when the massive storm swept through the state. The company’s main defense was that the storm hit its entire service area directly.

"In this case, we were hit equally over the system," Ferrell said. "On Wednesday, we pulled out all of the stops. There was no shifting of Duke employees from one location to another, and no neighboring utilities were willing to release their workers."

It was like a full invasion with troops unable to help in other areas because everyone had to defend themselves, he said.

"Had it only hit Durham, we could have thrown everyone in South Carolina and Charlotte at it," said Tom Williams, manager of external affairs for the company.

Underground cables cost too much and have problems of their own, Ferrell said.

But at the same time, he said 80 percent of all new cable is underground. The cost of placing existing overhead lines underground would be $15 billion or more, he said, citing a past study. The whole system is only valued at $4 billion, he said.

Williams said there have been no linemen layoffs but, as some have retired, those duties have been outsourced through contracts. Those contract workers give the company the flexibility to call them in during an emergency but to have them work less during normal times, he said.

All of the contract workers were available from the first day of the power outage as more out-of-state workers were added. The first to leave for the Triangle were crews from Florida, the farthest away from the storm, he said. Crews poised in northern Georgia left next when their company released them.

Duke could not recruit outside workers until the power companies released them, Williams said. "We can’t grab somebody else’s employees," he said.

Duke Power manager Steve Cruise had to explain why the Murdoch Center, a state home in Butner for the mentally retarded, because of its placement on the power grid, was left without power so long that some patients suffered medical problems from the cold.

"With the resources we had on the ground, we got the bang for the buck with … attacking the way we did," Cruise said. "[The storm] was just too big."

Another arm of the grid, like a spoke on a wagon wheel, is packed with high priority cusomters such as Umstead Hospital and several prisons. Murdoch is at the end of a spoke in the other direction and the only high priority there, he said.

Others at the hearing supported the power company, saying linemen worked tirelessly.

Bobby Wingate, a Durham resident and lineman, implored residents not "to bash" workers in the future and told tales of children and teenagers cursing linemen as they worked. He said that the real trouble is trees and that local governments will not allow the company to prune to prevent massive power losses.

"What are we teaching our kids with the television and the mayor busting on us before they know what’s going on?" he asked. "People in Chapel Hill, they don’t want you to look at trees … if you don’t [prune] the trees, you’re going to have this."

Some at the hearing did not buy Duke’s defense and believe the company shortchanged Durham and reacted too slowly to a storm it knew was on its way.

Others, such as Mike Shiflett, said a study commission should look at whether cables could be put underground.

Joe Capowski, a former Chapel Hill Town Council member and an electrical technician, said Duke Power failed in its response to Durham and Orange counties.

"Duke Power reps have cited to you their heroic efforts," he said. "I see this as a replay of Fran. We are just as vulnerable for the next storm. In six years what have you done to make us less vulnerable to storms? We’re a sitting duck for the next storm, and it will certainly occur. It’s part of our climate."



-- Anonymous, December 20, 2002

Answers

As usual, the City of Durham held this hearing at 6 p.m. in order to incovnenience as many people as possible. We Durhamites know that the hearing will stretch on for several hours and, thus, most of us will miss dinner. If we've been at work all day, it's hard to grab something to eaton the way there. Parking is limited too. The weather cooperated last night too--windy, cold and rainy. If a hundred people attended then that was a lot for such an event.

-- Anonymous, December 20, 2002

Those people who were trashing the linemen while they were working should have been asked what house they lived in, then that house isolated for a day from getting power when the neighborhood was re-connected. a-holes.

Some folks just don't think. These guys are working in frigid conditions with usually live wire, connecting to dead wire to make it live, not knowing if some idiot has his generator connected somewhere up ahead. Even with all the safety precautions built in and trained in, it's still a dangerous job.

As to the tree trimming aspect, I couldn't agree more. But, for those rural areas that were low priority, I have to wonder if the trees should have been trimmed during late summer, or were they completely uprooted so the whole tree fell on the lines?

Since we were just in the area in August, I have first hand recollections of the trees in parts of the area. Driving the beltway is like driving thru a park or woodsy area. You don't realized that you're in a city because the trees block everything. We found the experience wonderful in spite of the amount of traffic. The only thing missing was the occasional wide open area associated with farming that one gets in rural areas.

If folks are going to have the area look like that, they're gonna have to expect these same trees to affect their lives on occasion.

As to the next storm, well, that depends on whether they trim the trees or not. In a hurricane it will doubtless make little difference, but in another ice storm, it could mean the difference between no power for a day versus no power for a week or more, just like this time.

If Duke has insufficient crews available, then they should have started making arrangements prior to losing power, lining up linemen, so to speak, from those areas which would not be affected by the coming storm. It was what, two or three days before any left from Florida wasn't it? They should have been contacted and arranged for the day before the storm, if not before. On the side of FPL, they had the crews standing by when news of the damage hit the airwaves. They had to wait for local power companies to call before sending them.

-- Anonymous, December 20, 2002


Bear in mind that Raleigh has stricter landscaping requirements than Durham, therefore has more trees. I still think Durham wasnt THAT much worse off than Raleigh. I forget the numbers but Raleigh, which is ruled by CP&L, had linemen working before the storm finished; far as I could tell, Duke didn't have theirs working until 48 hours had gone by. Most damage I saw was downed branches, except for the amazingly explosve Bradford pears. Really, it looked as if they had exploded about two feet up the trunk. I don't think there were that many actual downed trees (comparatively).

Yes, terrible that people maligned the linemen. It will make you happy to know that I took ours a cake and a 2lb can of Danish butter cookies. They were kinda taken aback and now I see why.

-- Anonymous, December 20, 2002


People really got upset with the linemen? It was the fault of managment. The linemen just did what they were told. . .

-- Anonymous, December 20, 2002

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