THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, June 26, 1996 TAG: 9606260395
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
LENGTH: 24 lines
Power was restored Tuesday to customers who lost electricity Monday night when severe thunderstorms and damaging winds ripped through the coastal region.
John Hughes, North Carolina Power regional manager, said that at the peak of the storm about 3,000 customers were without power.
``We really got hammered by Mother Nature,'' he said, adding that problems were compounded because one of the company's three customer service centers, which handle emergency calls, took a lightning hit, which knocked out the telephone lines.
``We know it's a tough situation for customers to be without power and our phone system to be impaired also,'' said Hughes. ``We were able to restore partial communications fairly quickly and transfer some of our calls to our other two centers.''
Hughes said Cape Hatteras EMC provided people and equipment to assist in the restoration efforts. ``We really appreciate their help in a time like this, and I know our customers do as well,'' he said. by CNB