‘Taking care of the people wasn’t a priority.’ Is Duke Energy to blame for flooding?
In a letter to federal regulators, Duke said there was no way to anticipate heavy rainfalls that doused the area in early June.
Weather forecasters had predicted 4 to 6 inches of rain
"Duke Energy operated all available hydro units to prepare for the forecasted rainfall amount of 4 to 6 inches in the
The letter came in response to questions from the
As the rains threatened to send the
Some people living near the
But Duke should have taken precautions in case meteorologists' predictions were off, Jones said.
"This is a tragedy," Jones said. "The lesson of this is to err on the side of caution."
Some homes had up to eight feet water, leaving some homeowners facing thousands of dollars in out-of-pocket costs to repair their homes. Based on historical data, only about half of residents have flood insurance policies, county officials have said.
"It seems like taking care of the people wasn't a priority," Cotham said. "They are trying to sweep this under the rug."
Preventable?
The federal government licenses Duke Energy to manage the flow of water in a chain of 11 lakes along the Catawba River.
Duke's main duty is to produce power, but the license also makes the company responsible for helping with flood control.
Two days before the rains started, Duke says it prepared by moving water from the upper Catawba River basin and passing it through
But the storage capacity disappeared amid intense rains, Duke said.
That's when the company says it opened the
Critics say that Duke should have lowered waters levels in
In the letter to federal regulators, Duke suggested it tried to strike a balance between preparing for the coming rains and keeping water levels high enough for other uses.
When the lake levels go too low, some experts say water quality suffers and it can be more difficult to generate electricity.
"Lowering reservoir levels further would have increased the risk of creating a deficit in stored water going into the summer if the storm had delivered less than the forecasted amount of precipitation," the letter said.
But Jones, the environmental activists, said the episode should lead Duke to re-assess how it handles such weather events in the future.
"When a reservoir system floods, it is preventable," he said.
Enough warning
Since the rains, some residents have questioned why they didn't get more advance warning about the floods and weren't told about the release of water from the dam.
But
Resident
Duke says the company notified local and state emergency officials of its operations and made information available on its lake website and via a toll-free phone system, according to the letter to regulators.
Duke disconnected power to some homes and later restored power in some places at the direction of emergency responders, the letter said.
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