Posted on 12/05/2002 3:27:17 PM PST by NautiNurse
A dusk-to-dawn curfew has been declared in Durham as thousands of homes and businesses remain without power. In Durham alone, 105,000 customers -- or 91 percent of Duke Power's customers -- are without power.
The Durham curfew will be in effect from 5 p.m. to 6 a.m. The curfew is included as part of a state of emergency declared by Mayor Bill Bell and County Commissioners Chairwoman Ellen Reckhow.
Also during the state of emergency, no alcoholic beverages may be sold, purchased or transported. No weapons may be transported off the owner's property.
Thousands of homes and businesses in Durham, Orange and surrounding counties are still without power, and Duke Power said it will take several days to get power completely restored.
A Duke Power spokesman said Wednesday night's storm was the worst ice storm in the company's history, knocking out power to more than half the company's customers throughout North and South Carolina.
In Durham, 105,000 Duke Power customers were without power as of 4:30 p.m., up from 89,500 in the morning. In Chapel Hill, the number was 36,500 as of 4:30 p.m.
Duke Power has 115,000 customers in Durham.
Durham County emergency management officials have opened a shelter at Brogden Middle School on Leon Street for chronically ill people and others with special needs, County Manager Mike Ruffin said.
No other shelters were open by 9 a.m. because none of the other potential sites had power or heat, Ruffin said. Officials were working to improve that situation, he said.
This morning, J.B. Childs and Kathleen Freeman surveyed the damage to their East Lynch Street historic home. A towering oak tree, reputed to be the second oldest in Durham, rained down limbs and branches onto their roof over night.
"The branches have been popping and falling all night," Childs said. "I don't think that anything has punctured the roof, but they keep falling down."
As Childs was talking, a branch came crashing down across the street, ripping a gutter off a house.
For many, today's power situation is reminiscent of what happened after Hurricane Fran in 1996.
After that storm, Peter and Esther Bent bought a gas stove for their West Markham Street home. Today, they were inviting neighbors with electric stoves to their home cook meals.
"If we're going to be without power all day, we may as well help people," Esther Bent said. "People need hot food and a hot beverage."
Duke Power customers without power should call 1-800-POWER-ON. To report an outage with CP&L call 1-800-419-6356.
Durham Public Schools, Chapel Hill-Carrboro City schools, and Orange County, Granville County and Person County schools are canceled today.
Most schools did close early on Wednesday because of the weather.
The National Weather Service was still posting a winter storm warning good until 10 a.m. today and Triangle temperatures hovering at about 32 degrees were going to drop, covering the roads with ice, said Ruth Aiken, on duty at the Weather Service station at Raleigh-Durham International Airport at 5:40 a.m.
"The temperature is hovering right around freezing, but it looks like the main thoroughfares are OK but the secondary roads and bridges will have slick spots," she said stressing that drivers should use caution on all roads.
Aside from ice on the road, emergency workers and drivers had to deal with widespread downed trees and limbs.
They blocked roads and sometimes fell in front of oncoming cars. During the morning limbs and whole trees toppled under the weight of ice. The far right lane of U.S. 15-501 South between Morreene and Cornwallis roads resembled a war zone and was blocked by several dozen pine trees that in the dark might be undetected by drivers, who were few on the road.
Chapel Hill Police Lt. Tim Pressley noted the tree problem. Estes Drive and Franklin Street were blocked in places by trees, he said.
"We’ve got widespread power outages. It seems like the only place with power is Glen Lennox; the rest of the town is dark," he said. "We’ve got a lot of problems with downed trees and falling limbs from trees, which has cointributed to the power problems."
A recording at Duke Power said it might take several days for power to be restored, in some cases, and cautioned against approaching downed power lines.
"We currently are experiencing heavy outages from the winter storm … We anticipate with this level of damage to our system, it may take several days to make complete restorations," Duke Power said.
A CP&L spokesman predicted most of the company’s customers would have power by midnight.
"Most of the damage and the ice has been concentrated in our northern region from Raleigh and Cary to Henderson. I don’t have specific number of outages for Roxboro," Francis said. "The early estimate is the majority will be on by midnight tonight. There will be some because of the extent of the damage that will take longer."
Even at 5 a.m., some power was flowing on Hillsborough Road and in The South Square Mall area, among other areas that had suffered some outages.
The Waffle House, a 24-hour restaurant on Hillsborough Road, never lost power and stayed open throughout the night, but other establishments in the commercial district went dark off and on throughout the night, said a nightshift worker there this morning. At 5 a.m., power on the street was back on, "for now," she said, and customers were beginning to fill the restaurant.
On Wednesday afternoon, the first winter storm of the season blasted the Triangle with the National Weather Service predicting up to an additional inch of freezing rain by this morning, which at 5 a.m. was collecting on roadways and threatening to cover the roads with ice.
The nighttime of rain was already wreaking havoc on power lines and tree limbs with the first power outages reported around 8 p.m.
"We’ll struggle to get a few degrees above freezing [today]," said Weather Service meteorologist, Kermit Keeter. The freezing rain would probably stop by mid-morning, he said.
Flights into Raleigh-Durham International Airport were still landing in the early Wednesday evening, but all major carriers were posting cancellations on later flights, said Debbie Johnson, who worked the RDU information desk Wednesday. Airport officials suggested passengers call each individual airline to check on specific flights.
The N.C. Highway Patrol reported thousands of accidents in the Triangle, most only fender benders and cars sliding off the roads into ditches. And about 5,500 state workers covered roads across the state with about 45 tons of salt.
Durham emergency officials estimated as many as 200 accidents were reported Wednesday afternoon and evening by presstime. And officials in Orange County said more than 50 accidents were reported.
On Pickett Road, 67-year-old Harold Pantley was one of those statistics. He had waited in his nearly overturned Toyota Echo for a tow truck for several hours. He and another car, a Honda CRX, slid together into a ditch at about 4 p.m.
"I thought I had a wrecker coming, but somehow it doesn’t seem that way," he said at about 5:30 p.m. He had been wait. A Durham officer stopped to check on the man as traffic slowly rolled by the two-car wreck and more ice accumulated on the road.
"It’s been real backed up, everybody’s looking for a wrecker," he said. "There’s a hundred thousand of these [wrecks] out there."
During the late afternoon cars headed into ditches and wrecker services backed up by hours. Four-way stops processed cars slowly as drivers feared sliding into each other or slipping off the road. Everything slowed down in the city as the first winter storm brought Durham activity to a wintry crawl.
City officials, who began preparing for winter weather on Tuesday, readied 18 salt trucks for icy roads and extra workers to clear downed trees. At an emergency meeting of the Durham City Council on Wednesday, the council gave City Manger Marcia Conner power to hire private companies to help clear snow and ice today, if needed. The council also canceled a work session for today.
"I don’t drive in this kind of weather," Councilwoman Cora Cole-McFadden said.
Small granules began to fall at about 1:30 p.m. Wednesday in Durham with the amount of precipitation increasing as the hour grew late. At about 2 p.m., some workers, caught a bit off guard, made their ways home with some pulling over to scrape ice from their windshields. Conditions were treacherous on U.S. 15-501 and Interstate 85 as workers tried to get home or pick up their children from school. Traffic crawled along the major roads.
Durham Public Schools decided to close all schools one hour early on Wednesday and canceled all after-school activities. Various charter schools in Durham County also closed early, and churches and other organizations canceled their planned events and regular services. A public hearing on Eno Drive and the region’s 2025 transportation plan was rescheduled for 7 p.m. Wednesday at Durham City Hall.
The blast of winter weather also caused havoc throughout Orange County on Wednesday, dumping snow and ice on roads just as area schools were letting out.
School officials in both the city and county school districts opted to dismiss elementary and middle school classes at their normal time.
But city school administrators quickly found reason to regret the decision, as the fast-moving storm and deteriorating road conditions threw bus schedules badly out of kilter.
"I can’t believe the snow came down that hard," said Steve Scroggs, the system’s assistant superintendent for support services. It’s clear we’ve missed this call."
Scroggs added that the clogged roads kept many buses from finishing their initial routes in time to begin the process of picking up students at the high schools.
The system did dismiss classes at Chapel Hill and East Chapel Hill high schools early, in hopes students who drive to and from school would be off the road before conditions slipped. Road crews throughout Orange County completed their preparations for the storm by Wednesday morning, as their supervisors waited to see exactly what type of precipitation would dominate in the area.
Most said their departments were well prepared for a snowfall, but would have trouble coping with ice.
"At this point, it’s hard to tell what conditions are going to be," said Cal Horton, Chapel Hill’s town manager. "If we get an ice storm, people need to be cautious about any form of travel."
Nasty measures for a nasty city--I am so relieved to be out of there!
Sure don't set right with me.
However, I have a real problem with those who must be out and are not permitted to carry.
Black ice when the temp dips to 23 tonight.
What kind of horse-hockey is this? If I leave the driveway, there's almost always something in the car. How does "Mayor Bill Bell" get the right to rescind the Second Amendment to the Constitution? Are they searching cars at checkpoints? What is the penalty for ignoring this potentate's proclamation? < /rant>
Interesting. Has the right to a jury trial also been revoked?
So, in essence anyone that has to travel will be a safe target for a robbery ? Should we put stickers on folks just to be sure the bad guys know who is disarmed ?
There were shots fired at a Durham school bus on Monday injuring the driver and a student. It is crime ridden with a corrupt city government.
They are trying to keep the locals in order I guess. An excuse to stop trouble before it starts.
MKM
Hope there wasn't too much damage to the course : )
MKM
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