All Hail to the Duke

Duke Power that is...

Man alive, have they had a job to do. This is a quote from their website (linked in the title above, if you missed it in my last post):

Peak Outages: 700,000

Total Customers Restored: 593,700

Total Remaining Customer Outages: 106,300
In North Carolina: 16,300
In South Carolina: 90,000

County Name/Total Customer Power Outage
Anderson, S.C./2,200
Burke, N.C./Complete except for scattered outages
Catawba, N.C./Complete except for scattered outages
Cherokee, S.C./750
Cleveland, N.C./Complete except for scattered outages
Greenville, S.C./56,700
Henderson, N.C./10,000
Pickens, S.C./1,100
Polk, N.C./1,700
Rutherford, N.C./3,200
Spartanburg, S.C./28,400
Transylvania, N.C./550

Someone asked me yesterday what on earth could be taking "them" so long to restore power. Well, according to "them"...

At this point, crews often are forced to clear entire trees before they can replace a pole, cross arm, transformer and wire that may result in only a few more customers being restored.

Restoring power to some homes in a neighborhood doesn’t necessarily mean all will be restored. The structure of electrical lines doesn’t always follow the layout of neighborhoods and streets. There may be occasions where restoring a circuit results in electricity to some homes or businesses, but nearby locations served by different circuits remain without power.

Pretty much that's what happened to my neighborhood. I live off of a fairly busy street in Greenville, and the businesses on that street have had power since Friday I think. My neighborhood is still dark.

I have seen Duke Power trucks all over the place over the past 6 days, and I have to say that I take back some of the harsh things I've said about the company over the years. I saw guys out on Thursday, in the freezing rain that continued to come down for most of the day, working while bundled up to their eyeballs. It can't be an easy job, and I appreciate all the work they are doing.

Now, having said that, I'm sure that I have a different perspective because I have heat and power. I'm sure that those that are living in cold houses for the 6th day in a row, using fireplaces and blankets to keep warm and taking cold showers in the dark before work every morning aren't as understanding as I am about how long it's taking to restore power.

I just hope that Charter is as fast as Duke Power...