PWC Prepares for Hurricane Isabel

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September 17, 2003

PWC began preparation for Hurricane Isabel early this week. PWC has verified inventory that is in high use for hurricane damage and insuring first-line equipment and vehicles are in service and ready for use. Employees have been placed on standby to respond to outages.

Crews will work to restore services until conditions become unsafe. Once winds have subsided, PWC will access damage to our system and follow the established restoration procedure. Hospitals, emergency services and emergency shelters are top priority. Followed by restoring services that will get the most customers back on the fastest.

Last year, PWC installed standby generation at its water treatment plants so that water services could continue in the event of a major outage. Last week, the PWC Board approved the purchase of standby generation for PWC wastewater treatment plants. Installation will not be complete until 2004.

Once the PWC services have been restored or should be experience no damage, PWC crews will assist other municipal systems through mutual aid agreements with service restoration. During last winter's ice storm, PWC assisted several cities in North Carolina with power restoration.

During Hurricane Fran in 1996, 45,000 or nearly two-thirds of PWC electric customers lost power. Within 24 hours, power had been restored to 75% of our customers. Within 72 hours, power was restored to more than 95% our our customers. Fran caused more than $2 million of damage to the PWC system.

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