CHARLOTTE — An object came in contact with power lines over the weekend, leaving residents at 5115 Park Place Apartments in south Charlotte without power for nearly 36 hours, which impacted their Christmas.
The power went out at about 7 a.m. Christmas morning, tenant Phyllis Ward said.
“It was it was totally unbelievable,” Ward said. “I didn’t have Christmas. Many of us didn’t have Christmas at all.”
Some power came back to her complex but not to her apartment.
“No electric,” she said. “Absolutely freezing inside.”
Duke Energy sent an email to tenants stating the outage was caused by an object coming into contact with their powerlines
Ward said she couldn’t get in touch with the leasing office, and only received the email acknowledging the outage.
Ward eventually decided to call the city, fire and police departments.
However, Ward said she didn’t get a response.
Channel 9 contacted Charlotte City Councilman James Mitchell.
“Park Place management should have responded to their tenant’s phone calls and worked with Duke Energy to fix the problem,” Mitchell said in a statement. “Management demonstrated an incredible lack of customer service for their residents.”
Ward said she hopes they are not put in a similar situation again but if they are, she wants better communication.
“Initially, all residents lost power on Christmas Eve morning, which was then restored by Duke Energy midday,” officials with the apartments said. “Following the power restoration, the main breaker was turned back on, which caused a power surge, knocking the power out again to one of the buildings and impacting approximately 50 units.”
There were about 12 units still without power Monday morning. They hope to have that restored by Monday night.
VIDEO: Duke Energy resumes normal power operations
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