Why won’t Duke Energy just bury the lines? And other power restoration questions. Any looting in downtown Asheville? Why is the landfill still charging residents for storm debris? • Asheville Watchdog
Today’s batch of Helene questions and answers includes the motherlode of Duke Energy questions. Duke spokesperson Bill Norton answered these all in a flurry late last week, so I’m getting all five of them all out the door today, along with one question regarding reports of looting and another about the Buncombe County landfill.
Let’s get to the questions, a few smart-aleck yet tasteful responses, and the real answers:
Question: Without getting down to each nut and bolt that needs to be replaced, what specifically is preventing the power from being restored? Too many transmission lines down? What substations need to be completely rebuilt? Is this a manpower or money issue?
My answer: I remain incredulous that the human species survived — even thrived — for thousands of years without electricity. What a barbaric life that must have been.
Real answer: Norton noted that as of Friday Duke Energy had restored nearly 1.5 million customer outages in North Carolina from Hurricane Helene.
Norton said that as of 3:45 p.m. on Monday, Duke had 8,590 outages remaining, with 5,283 in Buncombe. At 10 a.m. on Monday, the numbers stood at 9,830 customers without power, with 6,684 in Buncombe County.
While numbers usually trend downward, Duke is seeing occasional upticks.
“We’re going to continue having some see-sawing like this as trees that are weakened but still standing come down when winds blow through,” Norton said. “Our vegetation crews are still working that ongoing challenge.”
To give you an idea of the progress Duke and the emergency crews from all over the country made here, as of noon Friday outages totaled 32,000 in the mountains, down from 49,000 the day before.
Now, about the difficulty inherent in these restoration efforts.
“Many areas of Western North Carolina were unreachable due to mudslides, flooding and blocked roads, limiting our ability to assess damage and make repairs, so we have also deployed drones and helicopters to assess and help with power restoration in inaccessible areas,” Norton said.
Norton said federal and state agencies, as well as local emergency responders, “have been invaluable in assisting with road access and other needs so our crews could get to work.”
“To highlight one example, NCDOT was able to build a temporary solution for a washed-out bridge in Haywood County, where power restoration is now complete,” Norton said, noting the outage map on Monday showed a single Haywood customer without power, a new outage first reported Monday.
Of course, the goal is to get the power back on to all remaining customers with outages. But it’s a huge job.
“Some will be restored within the coming days,” Norton said. “Other properties remain inaccessible or are not able to receive power — for reasons such as structural damage — and will be without electricity for an extended period of time. It’s going to take collaboration with local, state and federal agencies to get the job done, but we will not stop until everyone’s power is restored.”
Question 2: How much damage did the power grid sustain in Buncombe County? The rest of western North Carolina? By that, are major substations down? Or are we talking mostly just a lot of power lines down?
Answer: “The devastation of Hurricane Helene was unlike anything we have seen before in our history,” Norton said. “We experienced significant transmission, substation and power line damage, particularly in western North Carolina and Upstate South Carolina.”
Norton noted that Interstate highways were knocked out by Helene.
“Duke Energy’s version of the interstate, our transmission infrastructure, experienced significant damage too,” he said. “We focused on restoring this critical infrastructure first, along with essential facilities — emergency service and vital facilities such as Mission Hospital and the VA hospital in Asheville, law enforcement, fire departments and water treatment facilities.”
As an example, Norton noted that the transmission and distribution lines supporting the Town of Marion water treatment plant (in McDowell County) were washed away.
“The devastation was so severe that our crews working in the area couldn’t even find the poles,” Norton said. “Our crews worked night and day to rebuild the infrastructure and restore power to the water treatment plant by Oct. 3.”
Duke also brought in three mobile substations to replace flooded substations.
“That allowed us to restore power to the thousands of customers served by each, even as the substations must be fully rebuilt in the months ahead,” Norton said. “Overall, hundreds of substations were damaged — all were restored by Oct. 4 with the exception of the final two mobile substations, which came online on Oct. 7.”
Question 3: Why doesn’t Duke Energy just bury the power lines once and for all? I know it would be expensive, but wouldn’t that be better than lines going down during every major storm? How much does it cost to bury power lines?
Answer: First, Norton said that burying power lines “would not have prevented the catastrophic damage presented by Helene.”
“Every underground line is connected to an above-ground line somewhere, such as transmission lines and substations that cannot be buried and which were significantly damaged during this historic storm,” Norton said. “We often build underground lines in new construction, but it is not feasible to retroactively underground the majority of existing lines.”
About 20 years ago, the North Carolina Utilities Commission requested a study on what it would cost to run lines underground.
“Based on the results of its investigation, the NCUC public staff concluded that it was not feasible to replace the existing overhead distribution power lines with underground power lines,” Norton said. “Such an undertaking would have cost approximately $41 billion and would take a workforce of nearly 5,000 employees 25 years to complete the project — keep in mind that was in 2003 dollars, and prior to the major population growth experienced by North Carolina.”
As you might have suspected, our mountains pose another challenge.
“Looking at the mountains specifically, undergrounding lines through the significant rock in this area costs about 10 times as much as elsewhere in the state, and undergrounding would also require massive tree removal to bury lines where tree roots are today,” Norton said. “For all those reasons and more, it’s not a feasible solution.”
Question 4: On Monday, Sept. 30, I drove by the Asheville Outlets mall. There, and in adjacent business lots, I saw dozens of powerline service trucks and trucks for tree services sitting idly. In several cases, affiliated workers were standing around. Given the immensity of the need in the area, I’m curious about this. I live in the Kenilworth area, and several major roads were still blocked, many large trees were down, with power lines scattered around. And of course, we still do not have electricity (power was restored to Kenilworth this past weekend). I understand the importance of a triaged approach to all of this, but I wonder why it is not possible to utilize resources that are here, ready and waiting.
Answer: “Immediately after a storm blows through, damage assessment is the first step so we can determine exactly what type of crews, equipment and materials are needed before we deploy crews to a specific site,” Norton said. “This helps us efficiently identify the right types of crews (line, tree, etc.) and have the right materials and equipment to get to work on repairs. You’ll often see line crews getting organized at staging areas while this initial assessment is being undertaken by damage assessors.”
Norton pointed out that the damage assessors, vegetation crews, and line workers have been “working 16-hour days for two solid weeks to get customer power on, typically leaving these staging areas before dawn and returning after sunset.”
“During the initial phase of the storm when communication networks were down, line trucks had to return to base operations more often than you’d see in a typical storm to get new assignments and map out routes by hand since GPS wasn’t working,” Norton said. “Additionally, crews do need to rest and refuel — both for themselves and their equipment. Working with electricity is hazardous work, and keeping line workers rested and alert is vital for safe power restoration.”
On a personal note, I’d like to thank these line crews for coming in from all over the country and busting their rear ends to restore power. It’s been an amazing effort.
Question 5: We’re a homeowners association of Cedar View and Ridge View just off Lovers Loop, and we seem to have fallen off Duke’s maps for repairs. Our 29 houses remain dark while those around us have power. Duke’s power outage maps are incorrect. A number of us have been calling and getting nowhere. Colder weather is forecast in the coming days. We’ve been working hard clearing the roads but nothing from Duke. I wonder if you can get Duke’s attention.
Answer: Consider it gotten.
“When repairs are made to a large outage affecting thousands of customers, that repair is considered ‘complete’ in our system, which automatically triggers an alert to all affected customers,” Norton said. “There may, however, still be a smaller problem that requires repair before power can be restored to your home.”
If you get a “repairs completed” text and your power is still out, Norton said to simply reply “OFF” to let Duke know your power is still out.
“This will help us isolate the piece of equipment still in need of repair and get your power restored,” Norton said.
Question: I love my friend dearly, and normally this friend is a reliable source of information. But this person owns a store in downtown Asheville, and she has received reports of looting by “vagrants” of closed stores in Asheville. Please confirm or refute this information. It is not my friend’s personal knowledge. It is a report from an employee. I have suggested she call the police or Chamber of Commerce to verify the report, but I don’t believe she will. This is the kind of news that can spread quickly as misinformation, and I hate this could be true.
My answer: Well, at least no one has tried to politicize this immense human tragedy for political gain.
Real answer: “After reviewing our records, and discussing with leadership, there have not been reports of looting by ‘vagrants,’ as you put it,” Asheville Police Department spokesperson Rick Rice said via email. “There have been some reports of larceny and of breaking and entering, but no more than occurs under normal circumstances.”
I’d like to note that “vagrants” was not my word. Just covering my rear end here.
“There are no reports in our system of looting downtown that I can find, but if your friend or anyone knows of it occurring, we would encourage them to contact the APD and file a report so it can be investigated,” Rice said.
I’ll also note this question came from a reader I do not personally know.
Other parts of town did see some looting, Rice noted.
“There were some instances of looting in the immediate aftermath of the storm, but those occurred at box stores and other retail outlets located outside downtown,” Rice said. “There were two instances where arrests were made while a theft was being attempted, and we issued press releases on both.”
Question: My house has been pretty much destroyed, as have so many others. We have sent five truckloads of debris to The Buncombe County Landfill. Can you please tell me why they haven’t waived their fees during this tragedy? Every time we go, I get madder and madder at this seemingly small thing. However it totally upsets me that they are not working with us.
My answer: I shall offer no sarcasm here, as this has got to be incredibly frustrating under the circumstances.
Real answer: Buncombe County spokesperson Kassi Day said this situation gets a little complicated.
“While we have temporarily waived residential bagged trash fees at the transfer station, we cannot afford to waive commercial tipping fees for construction waste and other debris,” Day said via email. “Solid Waste is an ‘enterprise’ fund, which means it is supported by fees and is not intended to be subsidized by tax revenue. FEMA will not reimburse the county for waived tipping fees.”
Day said the county is collecting debris from “critical infrastructure, such as hospitals, schools, and water facilities.”
“We are still assessing the total volume of debris before we start a broader collection effort,” Day said. “Once we know the scope, we will begin to clear all public roadways. Then the county will begin collecting residential debris that people have placed in the right-of-way along public roads.”
Day said people can start placing debris there now, with an important addendum.
“This is important: It will speed up collection for all of us if everyone separates their debris by type,” Day said. “Appliances, construction materials, electronics, and hazardous household materials (herbicides, paint, small propane tanks, solvents) should be placed into separate piles.”
Day said the county has contracted with a removal company to provide the collection. The county hopes to have more information to share with the public this week, she added.
Asheville Watchdog is a nonprofit news team producing stories that matter to Asheville and Buncombe County. John Boyle has been covering Asheville and surrounding communities since the 20th century. You can reach him at (828) 337-0941, or via email at jboyle@avlwatchdog.org. To show your support for this vital public service go to avlwatchdog.org/support-our-publication/.
by Jane Winik Sartwell, Carolina Public Press April 24, 2025
Six months ago, Washington Regional Medical Center in Plymouth declared bankruptcy for the second time in five years. Now, hospital leadership hopes that the facility will emerge from this latest financial hardship by late May.
That’s good news to the 10,713 residents of Washington County who need the hospital to stay in business. It’s the only one around.
The bad news is that it has never been harder to keep a rural hospital afloat, especially one that’s not connected to a larger health system. In adjacent Martin County, Martin General Hospital closed its doors in 2023. Thirteen more counties in the northeastern region of the state don’t have hospitals at all.
Should Washington Regional get through this, it will serve as a rare example of a rural hospital taking control of its shaky finances and preserving essential services for North Carolinians.
The good doctor
When Washington Regional Medical Center filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, it owed millions to a long list of creditors.
Dominion Energy is due roughly $300,000. The Washington County Tax Office is asking for over $150,000. Washington Regional also owes money to General Electric as well as a number of vendors, including the company that handles the hospital’s pharmaceutical operations. The full list of creditors includes more than 70 companies and organizations.
Texas-based Affinity Health Partners purchased the Washington County hospital after a catastrophic 2019 bankruptcy that led to liquidation under its previous owners. But by the end of the year, patients were back on the hospital floor.
Washington County, one of the poorest areas in North Carolina, also hosts some of the highest rates of infant mortality and other adverse health conditions, such as obesity and heart disease.
That makes Washington Regional Medical Center, with its 25 beds, a lifeline in an otherwise barren health landscape. It’s why the facility is designated as a “critical access hospital” by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid.
When neighboring Martin General Hospital closed, emergency room visitation at Washington Regional increased from 450 patients per month to over 600.
“The importance of the hospital cannot be overstated,” Plymouth Mayor Brian Roth told Carolina Public Press. “Especially since we’ve gotten all the patients who would have gone to Martin General.”
Washington Regional is ‘here to stay’
If Washington Regional did close, residents would have to drive hours to reach the nearest hospital — ECU Health Medical Center in Greenville. The flat, piney swampland on the Albemarle Sound is not easy to navigate, and public transit is pretty much nonexistent.
“We cannot lose the hospital here,” Roth said. “It just cannot happen.”
CEO Frank Avignone promises that it won’t.
“We used bankruptcy as a tool to reorganize our debt,” he explained. “We basically did it for one vendor who was giving us a hard time, and now that that is taken care of, the hospital is doing well. Patient volumes are up. We have a brand new CT scanner so we are increasing cardiac and pulmonary care. We have new doctors on staff. A new OB/GYN on staff. We’re not some fly-by-night community hospital being run by a crook using it as an ATM machine.
“The hospital is here to stay unless it burns to the ground.”
Washington Regional is not currently performing surgeries. Hospitals typically use specialty procedures as a way to generate revenue and offset the high costs of, say, operating an emergency room. The hope is that the hospital will renew surgical procedures at some point, adding a layer of financial security.
Meanwhile, another threat is looming: the $880 million cut to Medicaid currently being discussed by Republicans in Congress.
At Washington Regional Medical Center, 60% of patients are covered by Medicare or Medicaid, making the program a crucial source of funding for the hospital.
If that coverage goes away, the hospital’s finances may be thrown back into peril.
“We treat folks on Medicaid. That’s our population and that’s what we’re designed to do,” Avignone said. “We just have to balance the books. That’s what I’ve been trying to do — and it’s working.”
Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.
Political Bias Rating: Center-Left
This assessment considers the overall tone and context of the content. The article discusses the challenges faced by rural hospitals, particularly Washington Regional Medical Center, and highlights the importance of public health services like Medicaid for vulnerable populations. It presents a sympathetic view of the hospital’s financial struggles, linking them to broader public policy issues (e.g., potential cuts to Medicaid proposed by Republicans). The emphasis on social welfare and the vital role of community health services reflect a center-left perspective focused on the importance of public healthcare systems and support for low-income residents. However, the piece does not overly politicize the issue and maintains an informative, fact-based approach, which prevents it from being categorized as far-left.
www.thecentersquare.com – By Alan Wooten | The Center Square – (The Center Square – ) 2025-04-23 16:32:00
(The Center Square) – State Board of Elections members are to remain the appointments of the governor of North Carolina and not shift to the state auditor on May 1, a three-judge panel in Wake County Superior Court said Wednesday.
The ruling impacts a portion of the third disaster relief bill from the General Assembly, though not the $252 million designated for western North Carolina’s recovery from Hurricane Helene. The 132-page proposal was heavily scrutinized because only the first 13 pages were related to Helene, and the remainder on changes to authority of elected positions.
Josh Stein was attorney general at the time and governor-elect, and Roy Cooper was in the final weeks of his second four-year term as governor. Both are Democrats. State Auditor Dave Boliek is a Republican.
The five-member state board and five-member county boards of elections are typically three members of the party of the governor, and two members of the state’s other major party.
Neither is the largest voting bloc. The state’s more than 7.4 million registered voters have more signing up as unaffiliated (37.6%) than any of the eight permitted parties.
In making the ruling, the court order said state and county boards “exercise executive functions” and paired that with a state Supreme Court ruling on Article III of the state constitution. It says the governor has “control over” the commissions and boards that are “executive in character.”
Critics say the state and county boards side with respective parties, creating many 3-2 votes. The Legislature, in addition to this attempted change, tried also to reduce the size of the state and county boards and change the appointments through a legislative act.
That, too, failed.
On social media, Stein wrote, “The North Carolina Constitution puts the governor in charge of executing the law. That’s what the voters elected me to do, so that’s what I’ll do.”
Cooper issued a veto of the legislation and each chamber of the General Assembly was successful on an override vote.
The duties of the State Board of Elections are not in the constitution. The auditor’s duties are as “prescribed by law.”
Stein, who advocated for cooperation with the Legislature upon taking his oath on Jan. 1 and in his State of the State address, has additional litigation against lawmakers pending Disaster Relief-3/Budget/Various Law Changes, known also as Senate Bill 382.
SUMMARY: Pope Francis’ body lies in state at St. Peter’s Basilica for public viewing ahead of his funeral on Saturday. The public has been gathering to pay their respects, with lines sometimes stretching over five hours. Following the funeral, he will be buried in Rome’s Basilica of St. Mary Major. A conclave to elect a new pope will begin after May 6, with 138 cardinals voting until a two-thirds majority is reached. The process will be signaled by smoke from the Vatican chimney: black for inconclusive votes, white for a new pope. Francis is remembered for his humility, care for the poor, and progressive leadership.
The body of Pope Francis is lying in state in St. Peter’s Basilica, where it will remain for three days until his funeral Saturday, expected to be attended by world leaders including US President Donald Trump.
His body was transferred to the basilica during a procession earlier Wednesday, and was followed by a service led by Cardinal Kevin Farrell, who holds the position of “camerlengo” (or chamberlain) tasked with making arrangements for the funeral and conclave in the weeks ahead.
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