THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, July 5, 1996 TAG: 9607050237
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY PAUL SOUTH, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: COLUMBIA LENGTH: 43 lines
Severe thunderstorms packing estimated 90-mph winds, lightning, hail and possible tornadoes punched northeastern North Carolina late Wednesday night, leaving almost 8,000 without power.
The storm also downed a power line across U.S. 64 just west of the Tyrrell County town of Columbia, prompting officials to close the road and shut off power to the town until the line could be removed.
``We had a tree downed on the side of the road that knocked some power lines down over U.S. 64, about two miles west of Columbia,'' said Dennis Swain, Columbia-Tyrrell County volunteer fire chief. ``We had to close the road and detour traffic for about an hour.''
Swain said the road was closed and the electricity shut off because officials were concerned that the downed line would snap.
``When the line went down, it didn't pop the breaker,'' Swain said. ``We thought it would be safer to close the road than to run the risk that the line would snap on somebody's car. It was safer to make people take the dirt road than run that risk.''
No one was injured. But firefighters extinguished a number of small blazes caused by power lines that were tangled in downed trees.
Meanwhile, residents in a six-county area were left without power.
Eileen Lee, spokeswoman for North Carolina Power, said Thursday, ``As of 10 p.m. (Wednesday), we had about 40 percent of our customers in the Albemarle region without service. But by 1:20 this afternoon, we had restored power to all but 205 customers.''
Lee said the combination of lightning and high winds caused the outage.
``It was all of that,'' she said. ``My husband and I live in Williamston, and he estimated the wind to be at least 90 miles an hour. When trees get knocked down in power lines, it causes all sorts of problems.''
Repair crews from throughout northeastern North Carolina and southeastern Virginia worked through the night to restore service.
``We had crews from Ahoskie who worked in their area, then got a few hours rest, and came to help us,'' Lee said. ``We also had crews from Virginia Beach to come down and assist us.''
Utility officials expected that repairs would be completed and all service restored Thursday night. by CNB