Email: Duke Energy aware of leaning poles months ago at Harrisburg crash site

HARRISBURG, N.C. ( QUEEN CITY NEWS ) — Queen City News has discovered that Duke Energy was aware of what they call a “safety issue” on their utility poles in Harrisburg months before a concrete truck took out a communications line, that snagged other lines, knocking down poles and knocking out power to hundreds on Saturday.

It’s one of two crashes where trucks took out lines along N.C. 49 in the last week.

The buzz around Harrisburg is about what happened outside the barbershop that shut them down for two and a half days.

“We had low-hanging wires in the back, so the fire department came and told us they’d have to shut everything down,” said Keith Herrin, a barber who rents a booth at Azeal Barbershop.

Herrin’s workplace is one of almost 600 businesses and homes to lose power in Harrisburg on Saturday.

“It was kinda chaotic, I’m just glad nobody was injured,” said Herrin. “I know a couple of lines were on a couple of vehicles at Sunflour (Bakery).”

A concrete truck snagged a low-hanging line, taking down four power poles, and knocking out power to hundreds, and shutting down Highway 49 near Morehead Road all day Saturday and into the morning Sunday.

“There were about two more poles that were connected to that same line, so it actually pulled down the other poles as well,” said Herrin.

The poles are owned and maintained by Duke Energy.

The Town of Harrisburg says the low-hanging line that caused the damage Saturday is owned by the telecommunications company, Windstream.

“If the lines are kind of precarious and they’re not our lines, we will let our dispatch center know,” said Logan Stewart, a Duke Energy spokesperson.

Queen City News obtained an email thread from last fall that explains that Duke Energy was aware of the problem last September.

The email is from Joe Crapster, Duke Energy’s Government and Community Relations Manager, to Mallory Hodgson, the Harrisburg director of Public Works.

In the email, Crapster lists the issues discussed in the meeting the day prior in September 2023, “… safety issues concerning leaning poles. I noticed one on Hwy 49 in front of Sunflour and I’ll have investigated. Please let me know other locations to investigate.”

Herrin says the problem should have been fixed right away.

“That sucks, that sucks because I missed out on money but if someone had gotten hurt that’s another situation, next time they need to react on something like that a little faster, make sure it’s taken care of, because it affects not only people but the other businesses around, so that’s really scary,” said Herrin.

When QCN interviewed Duke Energy Wednesday afternoon, we did not have that email thread from the Town of Harrisburg, so we reached back out to them after receiving the emails.

Duke Energy’s statement is below:

“When any member of the public or entity wishes to report a line to Duke Energy for safety reasons, we use the same protocol no matter who is calling to report it (calling 800-777-9898 to report it or being directed to do so if they were to call our call center). The Town of Harrisburg has asked for and has been notified of the proper protocol for reporting any low-hanging lines of concern.

We appreciate the partnership with the Town of Harrisburg and encourage any member of the public who may have concerns about a line to report it by calling 800-777-9898.”

Harrisburg also provided an email town leaders sent to Charter Communications about the problem, and the town said in its email to Duke that Charter maintains that since these are Duke Energy poles, it is a Duke Energy issue.

Duke Energy responded to QCN about that part of the email as well in a statement:

“While that is true, that request, in order to follow proper work methods, should come from Charter, not from the Town.”

In a separate incident on Tuesday afternoon, a dump truck driver knocked down lines along Pepsi Way off N.C. 49 less than a mile from Saturday’s crash.

Crews spent most of the day Wednesday repairing that problem.

The Cabarrus County Sheriff’s Office gave a citation to the dump truck driver because deputies say the driver left the boom up on the truck.

No citation was given to the cement truck driver on Saturday because deputies say the truck was the proper height, and it was the communications line that was hanging too low.

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