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Littleton area citizens suffered through another utility problem this past Monday. About 10:21 a.m. the power went out to 1,618 homes and businesses in Littleton and the Littleton area. According to a spokesperson from Progress Energy the outage was an emergency planned shut down. The power company was trying to prevent a more serious problem by solving one that they said had cropped up recently. The power came back on at 11:35 a.m.
This was just another in a series of utilities malfunctions that seem to plaque the Littleton area since February of this year. On Feb 13 - nearly 5,000 area households and businesses were without power at various times throughout the day as winds that topped 50 mph buffeted the region. The customers who were serviced by both Progress Energy and Halifax Electric Membership Corp were hit by outages.
In March a water main break between Littleton and Roanoke Rapids disrupted service for several hours. The break was caused by old pipes.
In mid April the town’s water was cut off after cable company installers cut into the water main at Moore Street and Rout 158. Before it was over 200,000 gallons of water was lost and the town was without water for several hours.
In early May cable workers for Time Warner Cable managed to interrupt life again in Littleton when they cut through the telephone lines. Before it was over it was revealed that lines were cut both south and east of Littleton. A total of 42,000 customers lost phone service. Banks, cell service and regular phone service were all impacted by the cut.
What is unusual is that each of the utilities – the telephone, electric and water – were out individually instead of all at the same time. This is especially true of the telephone and electric when it is common for them to be out at the same time.
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