18-wheeler snaps 2 power poles Monday night

FORT MILL, S.C. — Hundreds of hotel guests spent the night in the dark and heat after a bizarre power outage on Carowinds Boulevard.

An 18-wheeler was parked behind the Clarion Hotel near Interstate 77. When the driver pulled out to leave, the truck snagged a low-hanging line and snapped two power poles. They were thrown to the ground.

"It reminded me of Hurricane Hugo," said Clarion general manager Phyllis Graham. "The poles were down on the ground. There were sparks flying everywhere."

Nearly half dozen businesses along Carowinds Boulevard went dark, including four busy hotels, two restaurants and a convenience store.

The outage shut off the lights, elevators and air conditioning units, and there were guests in 67 rooms at the Clarion.

The owner went out late at night, and bought flashlights for the guests.

"I gave every guest that had children in their room a flashlight, and we got these lanterns that you use whenever you're camping out," Graham said.

Dawn Prior and her family planned to spend Tuesday at Carowinds, but had a rough start to their vacation.

"We got into the hotel, the kids went swimming, and the next thing you know the power goes out," Prior said.

Several guests told Channel 9 the hotel staff handled the crisis well, and only a few guests checked out and left. Power was restored to all businesses in about 13 hours, by 10 Tuesday morning.

However, business owners are concerned because this same problem has happened before, in the same exact way.

Graham said truckers often park in a lot behind the hotel and sleep in their trucks. Six months ago, another truck hit a low-hanging line and also caused an outage. Graham said the lines should've been raised high enough to prevent that in the first place.

"We have to make this safe so it doesn't happen again," she said.

Comporium, which runs a fiber optic line across the Clarion parking lot, told Channel 9 the line that fell wasn't theirs.

Glenn McFadden with Comporium said the company did receive a request to check on a low-hanging line several months ago, but when crews arrived they realized it wasn't their line.

Duke Energy told Channel 9 its fiber optic lines are underground in the Carowinds area, so it would not be their responsibility, either.

A third company, Colorado-based Level Three, which also runs fiber optic lines, said they don't own any of the lines in that area.

By law the lines must be at minimum 15½ feet off the ground, and by Tuesday night, they were raised several feet higher than they were in the morning. Business owners hope that will be enough to avoid another night like Monday night.

WSOC