Natural gas being restored to customers in Anson County

WADESBORO, N.C. — All of the natural gas has been restored for critical customers in Wadesboro, including hospitals and nursing homes, Piedmont Natural Gas officials said.

Everyone should have natural gas by 8 p.m. Sunday.

Crews will go around to homes and business Monday to make sure the natural gas is back to working order.

Hundreds of people, and many businesses, in Wadesboro, were without natural gas for more than 36 hours.

Officials said the gas went out around 9 p.m. Friday.

A pressure system in the pipes caused the outage Friday night, and it affected around 900 people.

Officials told Channel 9 that many restaurants were not open and that 40-50 workers from the utility were restoring service.

"Anytime it happens, it's a very inconvenient because, on Saturdays, you don't want to go home and cook,” Wadesboro resident Shemetra Melton said.

Many restaurants closed early, while others, like Waffle House, had signs on the doors letting people know their menu is limited.

“(It’s) a very big deal. It really, really is,” Wadesboro resident Queen Crump said. "Whenever you go to a place and you really want it, don't feel like cooking and then they have a sign like that, it just don't make you feel very good."

Crews went door-to-door of customers affected, turning off meters to make sure it's safe before bringing the system back up.

"We're very, very fortunate that it is the summer season and people are not needing our services to heat up their homes, but obviously you have other uses,” said Piedmont Natural Gas Communications Manager Phillip Morgan.

"(U.S.) 74 has a lot of traffic, people, so we don't want them to get the impression that we can't operate on the weekends like we should,” Melton said.

Cox Media Group