Crews leave snapped power pole tied off to small tree

MOUNT HOLLY, N.C. — A power pole was sheared off at the base in a Mount Holly hit-and-run and was left that way.

Crews tied the pole to a neighbor’s tree to keep it from falling.

The woman who lives there couldn’t believe it.

Channel 9 anchor John Paul talked to her and got answers from Duke Energy.

“It gives me chills looking at it. It’s leaning toward the street on my small tree,” resident Robin Williams said. “I just don’t get it.”

The power pole snapped during the hit-and-run sometime overnight on July 3 or July 4.

When crews arrived on the scene, they restored power, tied the pole off to a tree and left.

“It’s just not a very big tree to hold a pole like that,” Williams said.

Williams told Channel 9 that she didn’t even know what had happened until she saw the rope in her yard and wondered how safe it was for people passing by.

“Say a prayer, and then go by real fast,” she said.

Williams spent four hours calling around Tuesday to get something done about the pole.

While Channel 9 was at her house, crews came by to fix the issue.

John Paul asked Duke Energy crews why the pole was left like that.

“It didn’t look safe,” John Paul said.

“Our crews would have never left the situation had it not been deemed safe,” Duke Energy representative Paige Layne said.

Layne said engineers determined it wasn't a danger, but it would have been dangerous to replace the pole at night.

“I’ve never seen it get tied off to a tree,” John Paul said.

“It’s not common, but it is something we can do in those very rare situations,” Layne said.

Williams hopes the rare situation is never repeated.

“It's being fixed. I'm fine with it. Let them fix it and don't do it again,” she said.

Police said they haven’t made any arrests in the hit-and-run.

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