Newspapers / The Kings Mountain Herald … / Dec. 12, 2002, edition 1 / Page 2
Part of The Kings Mountain Herald (Kings Mountain, N.C.) / About this page
This page has errors
The date, title, or page description is wrong
This page has harmful content
This page contains sensitive or offensive material
Page 2A The Kings Mountain Herald i POWER From 1A Kings Mountain, which buys power wholesale from Duke Power Co., lost power to its Gaston Street and York Road substations at approxi- mately 2 a.m. Thursday. Duke got power restored to the substations around 10:30 p-m. Thursday. In the meantime, city per- sonnel worked around the clock to replace what they could on their own lines and remove trees and limbs from lines. City codes officials went around town checking lines going into residences and advised them on getting private electricians to repair their lines. When the city first received its electrical load from Duke Power, Murphrey said it was “cold” and had to be turned off and fed back in slowly. Different section of town were turned on one-by-one. All 4,000 Kings Mountain customers were back on line Sunday afternoon. About the only people with power during the out- age were those businesses and residences that had gen- erators. No problems were reported from generator use in Kings Mountain, but a Shelby man died from car- bon monoxide poisoning from a generator that was being used on a built-in porch and carbon monoxide leaked into his home. One of the hardest areas to get back on line in the city was the Linwood section. “There was so much dam- age over there from limbs and trees, and there were so many lines down it was very difficult,” Murphrey said. “We got most of them on by Sunday, but most of that area did not come on when we first cut the power back on Thursday night. “We also had a tremen- dous problem over in the Crescent Hill area. We had a utility pole that was one of the main utility poles with a large transformer on it that supplied a lot of residents that was cut in half by a tree. We kept working with that and got it back on Friday night.” City employees worked around the clock on a rotat- ing basis throughout the ordeal, and some contractors from as far away as Georgia were called in to assist. “But the majority of it was done by our city utility crews,” Murphrey said. A local tree-clearing con- tractor was called in to cut trees out of the streets so city electrical crews could get to the houses where lines needed to be replaced. City employees not trained to work on lines helped in other areas - from staffing phones to helping clear trees. “We have right at 200 employees, and most of them were out there work- ing,” Murphrey said. “Anybody that could use a chain saw was assisting with anything they could do, even before the storm actually came. “Before the storm we made sure we had sand and salt spread onsthe streets, and during the storm they were spreading on all the streets and bridges. As the roads became clear they switched over to assist in removing limbs and trim- ming trees. “It was a total team effort. The codes department would go out and look for areas that needed assistance, and assisted citizens in what to do as far as calling electri- cians in for service and bringing things back up to - codes. “The fire department answered about 30 calls dur- ing that period of time, but nothing serious. Most of it was to check smoke. A lot of times when utilities pull away from the house there's some smoke coming back from some appliance in the house. They checked it out and made sure everything was okay, and the utility department would come out and make sure the power was corrected so they wouldn't have a fire in the house.” Murphrey said he felt the storm was worse than Hugo because of a combination of a total blackout, and proper- ty and financial damage. “When you combine everything, this is the worst storm in our history, and certainly the most costly in the history of Kings Mountain,” he said. But Murphrey praised city employees for their team- work and dedication to quickly get Kings Mountain back to normal. “We don’t have every- thing done yet,” he said. “but we hope to get every- thing cleaned up by Christmas,” he said. “We want all of this off the streets by Christmas. “I'm real proud of all of our employees and citi- zens,” he said. “Every neighborhood I went to all over town, people were helping each other out. We also want to thank the citi- zens so very much for their patience and understanding throughout this crisis.” CLAIMS From 1A are also covered for any food they may have lost while they were without electricity. “There are thousands of folks out there who have | | lost refrigerated food and said. McClure said that he has also had several calls about peoples’ trees falling on their neighbors” houses. Most of them want to know whose insurance should cover the damage, he said. “One is not held responsi- ble if one’s tree is healthy and it falls on someone’s house,” he said. “If one’s tree is a hazard; then there could be negligence on the part of the tree owner.” John Caveny, of the John Caveny Agency, said that his .., agency covers any damage to an actual structure, like a don’t know: it's-covered;”? he" house, ‘automobile, out building, or fence, caused by a falling tree or limb. However, he said that his agency does not cover trees that break and fall in the yard without hitting a struc- ture. The owner would be responsible for having the Jamey Happy 20th Anniversary!! Everyone knows that I don’t care for fishing, but I sure am 1 glad I took the bait. Kim Kings Mou ntain Auto/Truck Plaza I-85 & Dixon School Road Kings Mountain, North Carolina Seneca 38 ain Carlyle LL Bronco..... 1 8°? canon cr-ones.. 3 102 carion Marlboro. * 207 /carton USA Gold..........5 18% /carton Viceroy..............16*/carton Basics................. 19% /carton Kool...................5.20% /carton Virginia Slims....*22*/carton Winston.............522%/carton Camel..............."22"%/carton tree cut up and taken away, he said. With all of the damage to homes and yard clutter now being assessed, some people are beginning to make com- parisons between the ice storm and past storms. Was the ice storm as bad as Hurricane Hugo? Will it cost as much to repair the damages of the ice storm as it did those of Hugo? “This is the largest storm other than Hugo in recent years. Claims are running just about what Hugo was,” said Maner. Most of Maner’s largest claims run from approxi- mately $7-10,000, although he has one claim that could be as much as $25,000, he said. “It’s significantly more severe than the Palm Sunday tornado in the early 90s. It will rival Hugo,” said McClure. Caveny said that he didn’t think the damage was near- ly as bad as the damage he saw during Hugo. Of course it is too early to tell how much damage has actually been done by the storm and how much it will cost to fix it. However, Maner estimated that his firm will have over $100,000 in claims, while McClure said that his firm hasn’t even had time to count the claims let alone the cost. December 12, 2002 GARY STEWART / HERALD This was a common site around Kings Mountain following Wednesday and Thursday's ice storm. Many side streets were closed after trees, limbs and power lines came crash- ing down during the night. All power was restored to the city by Monday. PEOPLE From 1A another storm-related acci- dent until Friday. “We covered all the major intersections non-stop,” Proctor said. The depart- ment used all 31 of its full- time employees and 46 employees in all. Proctor credited the public for staying inside. “Some of the guys noticed some of the same people riding up and down the roads,” he said, “but for the most part people just stayed in. Traffic was not that bad at all.” Proctor said the most posi- tive thing he saw during the storm was people help- ing people. Although power was out all over town, many busi- nesses stayed open so peo- ple could purchase neces~ ! sary items. Kings Mountain Hospital operated on gener- ators and everything went smoothly, according to employee Alex Bell. “I think, again, this storm shows what kind of commu- nity we have,” Proctor said. “When something bad hap- pens everybody's going to pull together. I think the citi- zens need a pat on their back, along with the city personnel. It says a lot about what this community is like. “Look at our surrounding municipalities in compari- son to us,” he added. “Look who has their services up and running the fastest.” A longtime law enforce- ment officer who has worked numerous storms, including Hurricane Hugo, Proctor predicted this won't be the last. “I don’t remember having a storm this early,” he said. “We're likely to have several more. We used to beg just to see snow fall before Christmas. In my lifetime I don’t remember over one or two flakes coming before Christmas. With a major storm coming this early, I'd say we're going to be lucky to get by. 1/4 CARAT of diamonds Necklace and i 7 0 et LLC 225 Jewelry er Gift Gallery Store Hours: ol Mon. thru Sat 9am-5:30pm « Fri. Night until 7pm 226 S. Washington St., Shelby 704-487-4521 www.arnoldsjewelry.com “My suggestion is to go ahead and get prepared in case we do have one or two more.” Preparation may have been the key for Kings Mountain getting power restored quicker than most neighboring municipalities. For years the city has had an aggressive tree-trimming policy on power rights-of- way, and except for that the outage could have been more devastating. Mayor Rick Murphrey also commended the public works department for hav- ing additional transformers, poles, and other materials in stock. Even before the city’s electrical supply from Duke Power was restored city crews were out clearing debris and replacing lines, poles and transformers so they would be ready to begin hooking up power * when it was/restored to their substations. | ; “We have a very good tree-trimming policy,” Murphrey said. “We con- tract with a company that continually cuts limbs away from our power lines. That really helped us during this crisis.” In addition, Carolina Tree Service of Kings Mountain was called in during the storm to clear fallen trees and limbs from the streets so city crews could get to fallen lines on private property. The city purchased an additional chipper truck to assist in the clean-up, and Murphrey encourages citi- zens to cut their tree limbs and pull them to curbside as soon as possible so all limbs can be removed before Christmas. “We will continue to work overtime to get all of this picked up,” he said. “We had begun leaf collection and we haven't forgotten the leaves but we've had to pull them back to assist dur- ing this storm.” While most of the city’s 4,000 electric customers were back on line Sunday, Murphrey said city crews will continue to work to repair and replace damaged equipment, especially main transformers. “I want to thank all of our city employees for their hard work, and all of our citizens and electrical cus- tomers for their patience and understanding,” Murphrey said. “They were calling us and giving us reports on conditions of dif- ferent areas and were very understanding as we worked throughout the nights. “Teams worked around the clock with very little sleep, and theyre still out there working at some of the major intersections to repair some of the big regulators and get them in working condition. “I want to compliment the police and fire departments that assisted the public works and utility depart- ments at all times. The fire department had a number of calls during that time and went out and assisted. resi- dents, and also set up an area whererwe fed all of the associates who were work- ing throughout the storm “The police department was out there when the town was completely black, directing traffic and assist- ing in every way they could. “It was a great team effort.” Murphrey said he saw a need during the crisis to use the H. Lawrence Patrick Senior Center for a shelter in future emergencies. “We need to contact the Red Cross and work with them to set up a shelter,” he said. “I'm going to work with Monty Thornburg (Senior Center Director) and the City Manager and request that we set up one in these times of disaster so people can come in and have a warm place. I'm going to ask City Council to purchase some large genera- tors so we can staff that area with the right equipment and with blankets and cots and whatever else we need. “Going through the differ- ent neighborhoods I saw people were taking care of each other, but one night as we were turning on power in one area I saw a group of people in a car with the motor running to keep warm. We need 4 shelter so people can have a place to get out of the cold.” A Glob alUSAonline and Newton. % All digital 56k modems Local dial-up service for Kings Mountain, Shelby, Gastonia, Bessemer City, Grover, Boiling Sprin Belmont, Statesville, Charlotte, Morganton, Hi % Only local internet service provider * Free, Friendly, local tech support % Fast, reliable unlimited access % Engineered for no busy signals We support V.92 modem. Never miss a call; put the internet on hold! 2nd phone line not needed. Save money!! With V.92modem you have faster access, browsing, connection and downloadling! Stop by or call us for more information. 709 W. King Street, Kings Mountain, NC 28086 704-730-0150 or visit us on the web at www.globalusaonline.com Hi
The Kings Mountain Herald (Kings Mountain, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Dec. 12, 2002, edition 1
2
Click "Submit" to request a review of this page. NCDHC staff will check .
0 / 75