By BEN EVANS : The Herald-Sun bevans@heraldsun.com Dec 12, 2002 : 9:41 pm ET

DURHAM -- President Bush declared parts of North Carolina, including all of the Triangle, major disaster areas Thursday.

The declaration means designated areas are eligible for federal aid to assist state and local recovery efforts.

There are 36 eligible counties, including Alamance, Chatham, Durham, Granville, Orange, Person and Wake.

As the president made his decision in Washington, local residents were still dealing with the aftermath of the Dec. 4 ice storm.

Dustin Brewer was thrilled when he saw the outdoor lights gleaming brightly around his northern Durham apartment when he returned home Wednesday night.

Like thousands of others, Brewer had been without power for a week, since a crushing ice storm hit North Carolina.

But once inside, his hopes were dashed.

"There was no power inside the apartment at all," he said. But he remained optimistic, with electricity pulsing so close to the front door.

By Thursday afternoon, that optimism was fading, as he stood outside wondering how he could come so close but still be one of the less than 10 percent of Durhamites remaining in the cold.

"It wasn’t that bad when everyone was out of power, but now that it’s only this half of the complex, it’s ridiculous," said Brewer, a 19-year-old student at Durham Technical Community College who lives in the two-bedroom apartment with his sister. "All you can do is pretty much laugh at it."

Brewer’s apartment, in The Forest complex off Constitution Drive, was among thousands of Duke Power customers still without power in Durham on Thursday.

At 5:30 a.m. Thursday, the company said 9,200 customers remained without power. At the peak of the outages, 108,900 Duke Power customers in Durham were without power.

Company spokesman Randy Wheeless said the number actually was much lower Thursday afternoon, but that the company wouldn’t conduct a recount until late Thursday night.

"We’ve made a lot of progress today, but we’re focused on restoration. We’ll catch up with the paperwork tonight," he said.

The company pledged to have all its customers back on by Friday at midnight, perhaps with a few "isolated" exceptions, Wheeless said.

In Orange County, 4,400 customers were still without power Thursday afternoon. Duke power also expects to turn everyone’s lights on by Friday at midnight in Orange County, Wheeless said.

At the peak of the recent outages, Duke Power had nearly 39,000 of its 40,000 customers in Orange without power. Piedmont Electric Membership Corp., which has about 14,000 customers in Orange, reported it had restored power by Wednesday to all of its 13,000 Orange customers who lost power.

Meanwhile, Gov. Mike Easley named a five-member panel, including four of his cabinet secretaries, to review storm response and complete its work by the end of January.

He said the review would be quick but will include a cost analysis of burying power lines and improving communication.

More than 1.7 million utility customers in North Carolina lost power during the ice storm. Easley said damage costs paid by North Carolina governments is now estimated at more than $60 million, and the figure could rise to more than $75 million. The state’s insurance industry projected that the storm could result in more than 60,000 claims of $113 million in insured property damage.

County Manager Mike Ruffin and City Manager Marcia Conner said it was too early for complete damage estimates. Preliminary damage estimates from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the N.C. Division of Emergency Management show that Durham County faces $5.1 million in government storm expenses, mainly for debris collection and staff overtime costs.

That estimate is second only to that of Mecklenburg County’s estimated expenses of $11 million. Orange County’s estimated bill is $3.6 million.

Wheeless urged people still without power to shut off appliances "so that when the power comes back on it’s not such a load that it just trips right back off."

He also advised people such as Brewer to call Duke Power again "if you’re in a neighborhood and it seems like everybody else has power."

Doretha Perkins, who was checking her power Thursday by calling home from work occasionally to see if her electrically powered answering machine would pick up, said she had tried that, but it wasn’t working.

"I am beyond angry," said Perkins, a paralegal who works downtown and lives in the Archstone Southpoint apartments at N.C. 54 and Fayetteville Road. "It is an irreparable relationship, but we have no choice because they’re basically a monopoly."

Perkins faulted Duke Power for what she said was a lack of communication with customers. She said she has tried to get more information from the company but can get only an "arbitrary deadline." She doesn’t believe the deadline because "they don’t even know what’s wrong" with the few buildings remaining without power at her apartment complex, she said.

"I’ve used all of my Christmas present money to stay at a hotel," she said. "So Christmas is not coming for me this year, except in my heart."

Brewer, who has been staying with friends after sleeping in his cold apartment for the first four nights, said he learned his lesson.

"I moved here from Florida," he said. "So it’s been an experience. I’m kind of glad I went through it, but I never want to go through it again. I’ve learned to be prepared next time."

City officials said all outdoor city parks and recreation facilities will remain closed until they can be cleared of debris and hanging branches. Indoor recreation facilities are open, however.

Also, officials said that citizens don’t need city permits before having damaged power meters repaired by electricians. The city is allowing Duke Power to inspect the repairs before turning on the power, while city officials will return later for a complete inspection, which is required by state law. Extra city inspectors will be working this weekend to speed up the work. For more information, call 560-4486 or 560-4487 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m.

-- Anonymous, December 13, 2002

Answers

OK, here's one for you. How much of the reason that those counties were declared federal disaster areas is a result of Duke Power's impotence? Your pictures of the ice storm were very impressive, just wondering how much of my tax dollars were needed to bail out a private utility company.

-- Anonymous, December 13, 2002

None, far as I know. Last I heard, cost of losses will be passed on to consumers. Bastards. All other power cos say they are going to absorb it.

-- Anonymous, December 13, 2002

"I moved here from Florida....I’ve learned to be prepared next time."

Andrew didn't teach him anything?

-- Anonymous, December 13, 2002

I'm not sure what a power company can do when the ice is so bad. They can't keep enough people on hand all the time to deal with such an outage.

I got a neat Christmas card today that wished me uninterrupted power. :)

-- Anonymous, December 13, 2002

Well, when an ice storm is forecast the power companies line up repair crews from other states, put 'em on standby. This is what Carolina Power & Light and others did. Duke, apparently, did not. They had to scramble for crews. Consequently, CP&L was able to get in crews from the mountains and beach and had them working before the storm was finished, while others drove in from surrounding states. Duke got theirs, far as I can tell, from Georgia and Michigan. It was three days before they arrived. To further compound the problem, Duke, unlike CP&L, uses contract repair crews; they have very, very few of their own crews. The Governor has ordered an inquiry.

-- Anonymous, December 13, 2002

More food for thought:

What if you had this bad ice storm, Duke Power, and **"flu-like** sickness in over half the repair crew??

This is why we prep.

One more uncomfortable thought: what if **you** were alone (or the only adult in the house) and in addition to the above, you were quite ill? (Or injured)

How would you cope?

-- Anonymous, December 14, 2002

If the power had been off longer, I would have done what I did longer, simple as that. The solar chargers were doing a good job of recharging batteries for the scanner, so I could keep up with events. Now I have the new mini-TV, I can do even better because it takes so much less time to charge AAs than Ds.

I've frequently been in the position of being ill or injured and alone, either nobody to call or didn't want to. It's why I keep canes around and why I haven't donated the crutches I've had since breaking a toe years ago. I have a phone in every room I use and often have the cell phone close by. There's always cheese in the fridge and other stuff not requiring cooking and I also have cans of soup and chili, ready to be heated in minutes. Cat food is readily available in the kitchen, don't have to go to a lot of trouble to feed the cats. Litter bozes are scooped regularly and could, in an emergency, go for a couple of days. Sweetie calls every day and would get worried if I didn't answer or return his call after a day. He'd call the Hungarian and ask her to get the key from outside and let herself in to see what was up.

-- Anonymous, December 14, 2002

Oh, gosh, stay well.

-- Anonymous, December 14, 2002

LOL! I mostly do, but Meems did ask.

-- Anonymous, December 15, 2002

Your answer is close to mine, OG. It was more of a rhetorical question, really. I was thinking about a comment someone made on TB2K about having an injured hand and trying to use a manual can open with it.

I know that I would crawl around my house if necessary, and it's small enough to drag myself between bath and kitchen, but if I lost use of a hand or arm, that would complicate things. I've opened a can of soup one-handed with a bottle opener before. I know it can be done, but it's very messy.

-- Anonymous, December 15, 2002

Dried soup mix! :-) GI can opener!

-- Anonymous, December 15, 2002

The issue of being sick during a crisis is never far from my mind. My husband spent last week out of town, and the kids leave before dawn and don't get home until after dark.

When I was sick, I still had to crawl around taking care of things. Without power it would have been really ugly. We have a handpump for water, but I could barely walk let alone pump much.

As it was, even with power it was hard to keep them watered and fed. The feed was already here in bins, and that's a good thing because there is no way I could have lifted a feedsack at the store.

Then there is the woodpile/woodstove issue. We had to put the woodpile about fifty yards from the house because of the snake problem, and we use a wheelbarrow to transfer it to the house. It took me three trips to bring in what I would normally do in two trips. At least I wasn't trying to do it over snow and ice.

Forget about laundry. I couldn't do it even with modern machines. The kids kept up with enough of it to get us by. I think the cooking fell off, but we lived on chicken noodle soup as I recall. :)

-- Anonymous, December 16, 2002

feel, H. Done it more times than I care to remember.

-- Anonymous, December 16, 2002

Dunno where the "Know how you" went to.

-- Anonymous, December 17, 2002