Around 1:30 a.m. on Friday, May 20 strong thunderstorms went through Wilson, causing damage to the Wilson Energy system and Greenlight system. Crews responded immediately to assess damage and begin restoration. Wilson Energy, Wilson Police Department, Wilson Fire/Rescue Services, City of Wilson Public Works and Greenlight all worked in the early morning hours to secure the damaged areas and minimize any hazards to the public.
A transmission line had damage which impacted three substations. Also, 19 utility poles on Forest Hills Rd were knocked down.
Major points for public communications today:
- At this point, street closures are the biggest impact to citizens. The area of concern is on Forest Hills Rd, specifically at the intersection with Tarboro Street. Forest Hills Road is closed from Downing Street to Tarboro.
- Approximately 50 Wilson Energy customers remain without power. Those customers are close to Forest Hills Rd and may have an extended outage.
- Greenlight also had customer outages. At the peak, 1,300 customers were affected. Currently 225 customers are still out. We do not have a restoration time available yet.
- We are using all city communications channels to inform the public of safety issues and restoration efforts. Facebook and the City’s website at www.wilsonnc.org are the primary communications methods.
- Streets crews are working with the Wilson Police Department, Wilson Fire/Rescue Services, and Wilson Energy on street closures, barricading streets and other tasks to support the restoration.
- Environmental Services ran Friday routes as planned.
- The peak outage number was affecting 14,261 immediately following the storm. Customers were restored at several different times, with about a third of the outages restored by 2:15 a.m. The remaining outages were restored throughout the early morning hours with approximately 50 customers currently without power.
- Wilson Energy Power Outage map is available here: https://www.wilsonnc.org/residents/city-services/all-departments/wilson-energy/report-a-power-outage
- The storm blew a large tree into Wilson Energy’s 115 kV electric transmission line, disrupting the power to 3 substations on the western side of Wilson Energy's electric distribution system. In addition, 19 utility poles on Forest Hills Rd were knocked down. Crews worked through the night to assess the damage and first removed the large tree and restored power to the substations.Crews from Greenville Utilities, the Town of Apex, the Town of Tarboro and the City of Rocky Mount are assisting in repairing the damage.
- The initial outage caused roughly 1,300 customers to lose Greenlight service. Most customers were restored in the morning hours with around 225 Greenlight customers without service currently. Link to view Greenlight outage map:
https://gis.wilsonnc.org/portal/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=10644aade24d4a888b023f9e6bebd525
- The city is experiencing high call volume due to the storm related outages. Customers can also report general Greenlight issues here: https://iframe.publicstuff.com/#?client_id=1000026#picker-top
- Wilson Fire/Rescue Service reports no calls for assistance from the storm.
- Wilson Police Department began responding immediately after the storm and provided traffic control throughout the morning. They coordinated with Wilson County Emergency Management and schools and businesses to address safety issues in affected areas.
- Police officers will remain on the scene to secure areas and provide traffic support in areas where crews are working.
Wilson Police Department is managing traffic at major intersections in the area. Avoid these areas if you can.
Check street closures and hazards here: https://gis.wilsonnc.org/portal/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=e1201f10cf744da1b791f59bed852068
Original source can be found here.
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