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Cold, dark days ahead for Carolinians
RALEIGH, North Carolina (CNN) -- Gov. Mike Easley announced Friday he is calling up the National Guard after power company officials said it may be next Wednesday before more than a million customers have electricity again. The governor said the troops will go door-to-door in areas that will be without power for many days ahead to check on those residents, urge them to move to a safe, warm place and inform them where to find shelters. "We're very concerned about reports of carbon monoxide poisoning from people burning charcoal and running generators indoors. We're aware of more than 130 cases of carbon monoxide poisoning," Easley said. With overnight temperatures expected to fall to 18 degrees Fahrenheit, the governor said shelters in 21 counties had a capacity to help more than 10,000 people. He noted only 1,600 sought help at 56 shelters last night. The governor also warned residents "to stay off the roads this evening." "The State Highway Patrol has responded to more than 3,000 weather-related accidents since Wednesday," said Easley. "We still urge people to take care on secondary roads and in rural areas. And especially at night in freezing temperatures it will be very dangerous on the highways of North Carolina tonight." North Carolina emergency management officials said the storm knocked out power to 1.4 million customers of Carolina Power & Light, Duke Power and a number of electric power cooperatives. 'Lights back on before Christmas'
Duke Power, which still has more than 1 million customers without service, expects to have power restored to 90 percent of its customers by next Wednesday. The utility said the massive outages were caused by "half an inch to an inch of ice the entire length of system, which is roughly Interstate 85 from the Savannah River between Georgia and South Carolina to Durham, North Carolina. Ice-laden tree limbs fell and so did power lines. CP&L officials said many trees that weren't downed completely by the storm have split in half. Many bent trees are popping back up, sometimes taking down restored lines. E.O. Ferrell, Duke's senior vice president of electric distribution, said 8,000 employees are tackling the problem, "We've got 2,900 employees -- these are all field line workers -- from eight states on the property." He said they would evaluate later if any additional help would be called in from out of state. Already hard at work, Bobby Brinkman of Sarasota, Florida-based Pike Electric told The Associated Press, "We come up here, work a little overtime, help the folks get the lights back on before Christmas." Power company officials promise it won't take that long. CP&L said late Friday that it has reduced its customer outages from a high of 465,000 to less than 300,000. "It appears based on our assessments that we finished up today that in the major metropolitan areas -- Raleigh particularly -- we should have most of the power restored by midnight Sunday night," said Fred Day CP&L senior vice president for energy delivery. But he also said that outlying areas where the most damage occurred may have to wait until Tuesday night for their lights and power to be restored. North Carolina's emergency management chief said restoring the power has already cost electric cooperatives an estimated $8 million. Ken Taylor said that figure did not include Duke Power and CP&L costs. The storm that hit the Carolinas left a trail of ice and snow across Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee and Kentucky earlier this week before moving up to the East Coast. It's been blamed for 26 deaths in storm-related incidents, primarily in traffic accidents -- six in Kentucky; five in North Carolina; four in Missouri; three in Arkansas; two in South Carolina; and one each in New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Tennessee and Virginia. 'Sound of cracking branches'
One Triangle resident -- Peter Bent of Durham -- said he and his family were awakened early Thursday by the "sound of cracking branches," which he said ruefully is "a very distinctive sound." "We're doing our best to cope with it," he said. "We are hoping for the best, but we understand that a million or so people are without power in the Carolinas. We expect it could still take several days to get our power back." He and his family, interviewed on CNN's "American Morning" Friday, said one branch "snapped and landed on the cameraman's pickup truck while they were setting up the shoot." Another North Carolina resident said when he went into a Lowe's building materials store there were no heaters left for sale and people were buying framing lumber to burn in their fireplaces. Keith Poston, a CP&L spokesman, said the ice damage poses obstacles for crews, but power restoration won't be a two-week ordeal as it was in the aftermath of Hurricane Fran in 1996. But he said this week's storm "was the worst ice storm we've ever had in this area. We've never had a half-inch to an inch of solid ice on trees and power lines." He said kerosene heaters are "flying off" store shelves as people feared another hard freeze Friday night. The Bents said that after Fran, the family purchased a gas stove and is using it now. "When the hurricane hit in '96, we were kind of stuck cooking on a camp stove. After the hurricane, we bought a gas stove, so we're able to at least cook and have hot food and drink and that really makes a difference when you're battling the cold," said Esther Bent, Peter's wife. One of their daughters, Natalie, observed that "in the summer last year, though, it was really hot. So it's better now because you can always put on more layers of clothing. But when it's hot outside, there is nothing you can do."
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