Power restored to 18,000

HAVELOCK — The lights came on in the Greenfield Heights Subdivision at about 10:50 a.m. Thursday as power companies restored electricity to the last of more than 18,000 customers from Havelock to Altantic.

Some of the customers had been in the dark since 2:30 a.m., when a pole in a swampy area off Sunset Boulevard in Havelock broke, disconnecting a main Progress Energy service line that routinely provides power for about 7,150 Progress Energy customers in Carteret County and feeds the main service for Carteret-Craven Electric Company power for about 11,200 customers in Havelock and surrounding areas. The cause of the incident had not been determined Thursday.

This was the second major power outage for Havelock in the last three days. At 2:30 a.m. Tuesday, power was cut to 1,315 customers on the west end of the city as a result of a single-car wreck that damaged a power pole.

Thursday’s 2:30 a.m. outage briefly interrupted power service to Cherry Point Marine air station, and a later morning outage cut power off at 7:45 a.m. to the Havelock Police Department, Havelock City Hall, and traffic signals through the town.

“It did affect the air station but they redirected it right away to another switch,” said Cpl. Lisa Strickland of Cherry Point Public Affairs, so the base was affected only minimally.

Strickland said no base aircraft incidents were involved in the outage. Traffic was reportedly backed up on Fontana Boulevard and traffic was heavy approaching the Cherry Point Main Gate due to inoperative traffic signals along Fontana. Signals began functioning with power restoration at 9:07 a.m.

Ashley Dempsy, a Progress Energy public affairs spokesman, said: “They were able to restore power relatively quickly there with a shift to an internal load.”

Havelock City Hall and the Havelock Police Department were given prior warning and shifted immediately to generator power, said Dianne Miller, the city’s spokeswoman. Service for 911 emergencies was never interrupted but city employees couldn’t issue permits or take water payments until about 9:30 a.m.

Attempts to restore power to substations east of Havelock caused Havelock customers to lose power, but both Lisa Galacia of Carteret-Craven Electric and John Brooks of Progress Energy said they expect power to remain on with the changes made to service.

Brooks said the company restores power to customers in segments as it is able to switch them to other lines and “the last group to be restored are typically those closest to the outage. Work continues on replacing the pole but we do not anticipate further interruptions as a result.”

The outage also affected Havelock Middle, Havelock Elementary, Roger Bell Elementary, and Havelock High. Schools opened on time and were preparing for a full day.