Trees and lines down on Belle Isle
Oct. 12. (3:15pm) There have been two more storm-related deaths from Tropical Storm Michael. A man and a woman died after their car hit a large tree that had fallen across a road in Marion. A 38-year-old Iredell County man died yesterday when a tree hit his vehicle.
Meanwhile, power is still out in the neighborhood around Belle Isle Drive, as well parts of Bethel Church and toward the end of Torrence Chapel. Duke Energy says as many as 1,000 Cornelius customers are affected. Caution: Wires are across Belle Isle not far from Cottonpatch Lane.
Duke is assessing the damage, which can typically take up to 24 hours, and trying to determine what type of equipment is needed to restore power and then actually do the work.
“Unfortunately, this looks like more than just a downed power line so this will take some time to fix,” a Duke Energy spokeswoman said. The utility company says it will phone or text customers with an update sometime this evening.
At the foot of Belle Isle at John Connor
It looks serious. Continuum, formerly MI-Connection, says the most severe outage was caused by a “massive downed tree in Davidson” near the community garden behind Fuel Pizza. “The tree is negatively impacting our hub that serves both Davidson and Cornelius. We must allow the electric company time to make any necessary repairs before our crews can gain access to our lines,” Continuum says.
There are few firm details coming from Duke due to the number of trees down and widespread nature of outages. It’s clear some of the problems are do to major equipment damage.
“Our crews will be on site throughout the rest of the day and into the night if necessary. Maintenance, engineering and service techs are all on standby to do what it takes to get our customers back on line. In the meantime, our crews continue to work to get nodes up and working in areas unrelated to the tree in Davidson,” a Continuum spokeswoman said.
As North Carolinians start cleaning up from Tropical Storm Michael, Gov. Roy Cooper asked people to be cautious when driving. He also urged those working to clear downed trees and debris to be extremely careful as many of the deaths that occurred in previous storms happened during the cleanup process. Downed power lines may still be active.
Flash floods receded overnight, leaving behind thousands of fallen trees, and some rising rivers. The Dan and Yadkin rivers are forecast to crest out of their banks today and tomorrow.
Duke outages in the Cornelius area as of 4:30pm.
Local first responders report rescuing and evacuating nearly 100 people yesterday from flash floods in Guilford, Forsyth, Iredell, Henderson, Burke and McDowell counties. Thirty-one school systems have closed today, and 30 systems have delayed their openings. There were eight shelters opened for people who needed a safe place while Michael passed through our state.
Michael is now a post tropical cyclone speeding away from the state leaving breezy conditions behind. Winds will taper off through the day today, but gusts up to 30-40 mph are possible in the mountains at higher elevations. A cold front will move through early next week ushering in the next chance for showers and thunderstorms. At the coast, there will be heavy surf and strong riptides caused by Michael, making swimming in the ocean dangerous.
About 408,000 people in North Carolina were without power as of 1 pm Friday., with outages concentrated in the Piedmont Triad and counties. State transportation officials report 301 closed roads due to fallen trees or washouts caused by Michael.
From 6 am Thursday to 6 am Friday., the State Highway Patrol has responded to 1,014 collisions and 2,017 calls for service. More than 2,100 state transportation employees are working on response to Michael’s damage on state roads.
Power to about 560,000 customers in the Carolinas was restored as of 9 am, according to Duke Energy. About 440,000 were still without power as of the same time
