From WIS-TV reports www.wistv.com
Residents in the town of Prosperity have been without power for Friday night and most of the day Saturday after a train car blocked crews from working on a power line.
Friday night’s winter storm damaged a power line on someone’s private property by the A to Z Transmission Exchange off C.R. Koon Highway in Newberry County. Linemen with Duke Energy were unable to access the line because the service road they use was blocked by a CSX train car, which appeared to have been abandoned.
According to both the town and Duke Energy, bamboo damaged a power line that steered into Duke Energy’s substation. More than 600 people were out of power due to issues with the power lines.
Officials with the Town of Prosperity said on Saturday morning they were “impatiently waiting” for the railroad company CSX to remove a train car so Duke Energy could begin working. According to officials with both the town and Duke Energy, CSX was contacted at around 5 a.m. to move the train car.
According to the town, CSX gave an ETA but was “long overdue.”
“This is absolutely out of control,” the town said in a Facebook post on Saturday morning. “Duke and Town are both exhausting all means to restore power. Patience is thin on all fronts and we do appreciate all extended.”
Temperatures dipped into the 30s on Friday night and are expected to drop to 28 degrees on Saturday night.
Newberry County Sheriff Lee Foster voiced his frustrations about the situation in a Facebook post.
“Unfortunately, we have people suffering from the cold and businesses missing their revenue,“ Foster said. ”The Town is at the mercy of the railroad. Our local state representatives have little leverage. Let us hope and pray that the railroads will come soon to help in restoring power to our little community.”
Prosperity Mayor Derek Underwood said at around 11 a.m. Saturday the town and Duke Energy decided to take matters into their own hands.
Crews worked to mobilize special equipment to reach the damaged power lines. Normal trucks could not reach the area due to the muddy terrain, officials with both the town and Duke Energy said. The repair itself took roughly an hour after that.
A spokesperson with CSX said the train car was removed at around 3:30 p.m., but at last check, the train car was still stuck on the access road.
Residents in Prosperity still didn’t have power on Saturday evening because another transformer in the substation within town limits was also damaged during the storm.
Right now, officials with Duke Energy said they are testing to make sure the new transformer is safe enough to energize all customers in and out of town limits and restore their power.
They had hoped to have power back up for all customers by the end of the day Saturday.
