Power Lines Down, Questions Come Up

The lines came down on Independence Boulevard, one of the state's busiest roads, and questions came up. Wednesday night’s traffic mess all but shut down the east side of the city. "It was very slow and scary for me because I'm in this hole,” says Taniesha Baker about her workplace, a gas station along Independence. She never lost power but her security cameras went out. Feeling vulnerable, she locked the store doors and waited it out. "I need to see the whole area at all times, I need to be able to view everything around me at all times. If I don't, I’m like a sitting duck.”

Drivers did some sitting of their own for up to four hours while crews methodically worked to secure the area. "It has to be understood that that's an extremely dangerous situation, not just for the people in the cars, but also for the electrical workers,” says Mayor Pat McCrory, a former employee of Duke Energy.

North Carolina workers are killed every year because of explosions or electrocution. In 2008, eight people died. In 2009, ten people died. "Safety has to come first over inconvenience,” says McCrory.

Now, the wires are back up and the pole has been repaired. All that's left of the major back-up are some pieces of the car that caused it. The question now is: can this be prevented? And the answer is 'yes.' The power lines could be buried underground. No more broken power poles. No more dangling lines. Baker says, "Burying the lines. If that's not a great solution, I don't know what else would be!” But McCrory warns, "You're talking about a very expensive proposition any time you're talking about burying lines and then the question is who pays for it?"

The NC Department of Transportation says Duke Energy would have to submit a request to the state to bury the lines. That's never happened, presumably because of cost.

McCrory tells FOX Charlotte he expects a detailed report in the next few days about the response efforts to Wednesday night's log jam. We'll keep you posted.