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Road closures in Burke County
By SAYDIE E. BEAN
Municipal and Courts Reporter
The map shows the road closures throughout Burke County,
outlined in grey. The red area represents the dangerous conditions
in western North Carolina.
FOR THE PAPER
The impact of Helene is forcing some Burke County residents to use their GPS to find new routes to get around. Some roads in the county remain closed, four days after the storm.
The N.C. Department of Transportation has declared that western N.C. is experiencing shortages of gas, power, food, water, and poor communications. Local roads remain closed at this time and nonessential travel is prohibited. All access points from the state to Tennessee via interstates 40 or 26 are closed.
NCDOT’s DriveNC.gov website has a listing of known closures. The list, however, is far from comprehensive. Communication outages have left some communities unable to provide updates.
Here is a list of road closures and reported end timeframes in Burke County:
East Union near Kirksey Drive and near Meeting Street — until further notice
Amherst Road, multiple trees and poles blocking a road — until further notice
300 block of Walton Road, blocked off by a tree — until further notice
Oakland Avenue near Enon Drive, trees in the roadway — Oct. 10
Clark Loop near Morris Loop, due to pipe failure — Nov. 30
Rose Carswell near U.S. 64, due to bridge failure — Nov. 30
N.C.126 near Benfield Landing, due to structural damage — Nov. 30
Fish Hatchery Road near Kayga Road, the road is impassible — Oct. 10
Due to damage from Hurricane Helene, Public Information Officer Jonelle Sigmon said that a sanitary sewer overflow occurred at the Lost Corner Pump Station on Monday, Sept. 30. The sewer spill began at 3:30 p.m. and ended at 5:30 p.m.
Around 2,400 gallons was discharged into the Wilson’s Creek.
The neighboring Town of Valdese is still under a boil advisory until water samples pass testing standards, Mayor Charlie Watts reported.
“The water samples pulled must stay in the incubator until 10 a.m. tomorrow morning,” Watts said on Tuesday afternoon. “As soon as we have results that pass testing, we will be sure to send alerts out.”
The water plant had a booster pump that had trouble building pressure, but after a quick turnout using a towable air compressor at 9:30 p.m. on Monday night, the water plant employees brought the bump back to standards.
Outages decline daily as Burke County residents await full restoration
By SAYDIE E. BEAN
Municipal and Courts Reporter
The City of Morganton’s electric crews with the help of
neighboring personnel restore power throughout the city.
FOR THE PAPER
The number of Burke County power outages decreases each day; however, thousands of residents wait for service to return.
As community members are powering through, various electric providers are working hard in the county to return power and inform their customers of their progress.
Public Information Officer Jonelle Sigmon reported that Morganton crews are working in the following locations:
Old N.C. 18
Mount Home Church Road
Dale Circle, off of Enola Road
Willowbrook Drive
Alexander Avenue
The City is aware that some power customers are still in the dark in downtown Morganton and assures that lights will be back on as soon as possible.
“We will try to keep you updated with new locations when we are told. We understand that your neighbor may have power, but due to the nature of the circuits, you may still be without power. Please be patient as we continue to make repairs,” Sigmon said.
As of 8:12 a.m. on Tuesday, there are 3,500 power outages in Morganton out of their 8,529 customers.
Duke Energy reports that 59% of its 22,830 customers in the county remain without power. Rutherford EMC reports that 40% of its 20,689 customers remain without power. Combined, 21,998 customers of the 43,519 customers served by both utilities are without power.
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