Natural Gas Service Slowly Being Restored In Stanly County

(UPDATE: 12/15/22)

NORWOOD, N.C. – Piedmont Natural Gas technicians have restored natural gas service to approximately 650 customers as of 3 p.m. Thursday in Stanly County.

A construction crew unaffiliated with Piedmont Natural Gas damaged a natural gas line near Oakboro, which interrupted service for about 3,000 Piedmont customers on Tuesday, Dec. 13. Piedmont Natural Gas has over 80 technicians across Stanly County relighting appliances and equipment throughout Thursday. Crews started with critical facilities, such as schools and hospitals, and then moved to neighborhoods.

Due to the number of affected properties, Piedmont anticipates service relights to extend into Friday, Dec. 16.
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NORWOOD, N.C. – Thousands of people are spending this cold night without heat due to a natural gas outage in Stanly County.

Piedmont Natural Gas crews are working to restore service after a contractor damaged a transmission line.

“I think it’s crazy,” says Aquadale resident Kelly Russell.

Dinner was put on hold for Russell and her family on Wednesday night.

The Bojangles in Norwood is one of  many businesses impacted by the gas outage.

“There’s so many trucks out, like over 300 in Albemarle trying to fix it,” Russell says.

Piedmont Natural Gas says a third-party contractor significantly damaged a six-inch transmission line on Tuesday afternoon.

Around 3,000 customers are impacted.

The damage happened near Barbees Grove Road and NC 138 in Oakboro.

“Our crews are working around the clock right now to restore natural gas service,” says Piedmont Natural Gas Spokesperson Zach Vavrica.

Vavrica says crews will go door-to-door to relight individual customers’ service.

“When you turn natural gas on, we definitely need to keep safety in mind, so it is a door-to-door, we have dozens of technicians who are highly skilled and trained working, working to get that service on,” Vavrica says.

Back in Norwood, the Subway is the only restaurant still open in town.

“We’ve been getting everybody coming in here,” says employee Landen Sanders, “We probably sold the most in awhile, probably more than several days.”

Neighbors say they feel for those going without heat.

“Yeah, I feel real bad for the people that don’t have… we’re blessed, yeah, that we’re taken care of,” Russell says.

Schools will be closed in Stanly County again on Thursday.

For those who need a warm place to spend the night, a shelter has been set up at Anderson Grove Baptist Church in Albemarle.