Gaston County residents deal with over a dozen power outages each year - WBTV

Gaston County residents deal with over a dozen power outages each year

“I guess they’ve broken my spirit to the point where I don’t know if they’ll do anything.”

GASTONIA, N.C. (WBTV)—A community in west Gaston County is dealing with a problem out of their control: relentless power outages.

Neighbors tell us they happen for no apparent reason over a dozen times a year and for long stretches of time.

“If it just looks like it’s going to rain…then the power goes out,” said Robin Heath, who lives off of Woodleaf Drive in western Gaston County.

She’s been there most of her life. But something else that’s been here for years, touching just about everyone, is power outages.

“I guess they’ve broken my spirit to the point where I don’t know if they’ll do anything,” Heath said.

Neighbors we talked to Thursday night say the power goes out around here over a dozen times a year, and it’s not for a few minutes at a time, either.

“Every time we get a storm, our power goes out. And it’s out for days.”

Daniel Myers has lived in the area for just a couple of years. The problem is so bad that he’s thinking about moving.

“Put the house for sale and move. Is that a real possibility? It’s something I’ve really thought about.” Myers said.

Residents tell me they’ve contacted Duke Energy, which tells them trees fall on power lines during high winds, causing the blackouts. The electric company does restore the power, but neighbors like Myers say it shuts down his home-based business. Not even to mention all the food that goes to waste, which can be in the thousands.

“They just keep band-aiding it and not fixing the problem,” Myers said.

Another concern is more critical. Since so many who live in the area depend on electricity to keep medical devices running, some have resorted to taking matters into their own hands to get them through the dark times.

“I fire up a generator,” said resident John Tutherow.

He says he had to use his generator last Wednesday when the power went out for over twelve hours.

“It’s really an inconvenience, man,” Tutherow said.

Tutherow tells WBTV that buying portable power around here is more of a necessity than an option.

“The breaking point was how frequently we experience outages in this area,” he told us.

But until a fix can be found, residents will most likely remain in the dark.

“I don’t know what they can do, but they need to do something,” Heath said.

We did reach out to Duke Energy, and they told us they do cut back the trees they have the right-of-way to. The problem is they can’t get to all of them because some are on private land, and those are the ones causing the issues. They are working with neighbors on a solution.

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