Heat restored for thousands after gas main cut in Stanly County, officials say

STANLY COUNTY, N.C. — Thousands of people in Stanly County have heat again days after a gas main was cut.

On Friday, a spokesperson for Piedmont Natural Gas told Channel 9 they restored service to about 2,000 customers as of noon that day.

The restoration was expected to be complete by the end of Friday.

Thursday was a cold, wet day, especially for people still waiting for their heat to return. Piedmont said that a contractor hit a main gas line Tuesday, forcing several schools and businesses to close Wednesday and Thursday.

The break happened in Oakboro, along Barbees Grove Road and NC-138. About 3,200 customers were affected, Piedmont confirmed.

The following schools were closed Wednesday and Thursday: Albemarle High School, Albemarle Middle School, Central Elementary School, East Albemarle Elementary School, Aquadale Elementary School, Norwood Elementary School, South Stanly Middle School, South Stanly High School and STEM Early College.

Heat has been restored to the schools and classes will resume on Friday, district officials posted on Facebook.

The remaining customers affected should expect to have their service restored by the end of the day Friday, Piedmont said.

“Thank you to our customers and communities for their patience as we work to restore service from this outage,” the spokesperson said.

While the damaged pipeline was repaired Wednesday, Piedmont said there was still work to do before restoration began. They said customers should prepare to be without natural gas through Friday.

Crews went door-to-door to get services turned back on.

Piedmont said multiple crews from around the state were working around the clock to make the repairs as quickly as possible. They started with critical facilities, such as hospitals and schools and then move into the impacted neighborhoods.

“We know it’s cold,” said Jason Wheatley, the spokesperson for Piedmont Natural Gas. “We urge people to be careful. We are making our way to you.”

There was also an emergency warming shelter set up Anderson Grove Baptist Church in Albemarle for those looking to get out of the cold. It was open through the day Friday.

Channel 9′s Anthony Kustura saw crews turning off meters and canvassing in the town of Norwood Wednesday morning.

The businesses forced to close included restaurants and retail shops. The Norwood Fire chief told Kustura the timing couldn’t be worse.

“Over the whole county, it’s kind of paralyzed us because all the schools are shut down, all the businesses are shut down,” Chief Vaughn Rummage said. “There’s a lot of folks out of work. And it is cold weather.”

The Worx Hair and Nail Salon in Albemarle was more hectic than usual after the business was left without the use of hot water to wash hair.

“It’s been inconvenient for our customers and our stylist,” owner said Joy Brown.

Residents struggle to keep warm

“It was 56 degrees in our house this morning and I thought, ‘oh dear,’ but at least we had an electric water heater in the back and we were able to get showers,” resident Robin McCollum told Channel 9′s Hannah Goetz.

McCollum was trying to stay optimistic, but is worried about her three dogs. She came home from work Wednesday afternoon to check on them.

“All three of them were just shivering ‘cause they are so cold, so I am trying to get a fire built and the electric heaters on before I go back to work,” she said.

Luckily, her north Albemarle home has a fireplace that kept her and her husband warm while she tucked the dogs in with blankets.

“I put a heating pad in with my 19-year-old dog just to keep her warm, and the others get up on the couch and under the covers,” McCollum said.

20 minutes down Highway 52 in the town of Norwood, Roxane Allen’s boss told her he was preparing the office for the heatless workday Wednesday.

“He sent me a message to tell me that he put space heaters in the office around three this morning so it would be about 65 when I got here,” Allen said.

The space heaters helped, but Allen said they just weren’t enough for the entire office.

“I had my assistant -- I had her stay home because I didn’t think the space heater would be enough for both of us,” she said.

A Piedmont spokesperson said the contractor hit a 6-inch natural gas line. He asked everyone for their patience as crews made repairs.

“Bear with us as we are doing this work,” Jason Wheatley said. “We understand that it’s cold out, we want to get everyone’s service back on as quickly as possible.”

Wheatley said crews had to go to each customer twice to make sure all meters were turned off before restoring service to the line.

“That’s why we have to go out and turn the meters off, so when the gas starts flowing you don’t have unlit pilot lights that are just putting gas into people’s homes,” he explained.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

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