Truck takes out pole, traffic snarled as a result

An accident knocked out power in parts of Wilmington Thursday and closed one intersection all together.

Just after noon, an oversized 18-wheeler hit a pole, cracking it in half, snapping power lines and tearing down traffic lights.

“The driver was making a right hand turn from Carolina Beach Road onto Shipyard going towards the ports when he lost sight of a telephone pole,” said Scott Herzberger of the Wilmington Police Department.

Progress Energy arrived at the scene at the corner of Shipyard and Carolina Beach Road to find the top half of the pole in the street. Workers struggled to get the remaining part of the pole out of the ground, and get the power lines back up and running.

“When this first happened we had lost power pretty much from 17th to Burnette Boulevard and back again so it was quite a large area without power,” Herzberger said.

Three New Hanover County schools were without power for two hours.

Local businesses and residents were also in the dark, but a select few were lucky.

“We got a few flickers but we never lost power,” said Kim Tudor of Dollar General.

The trucker was carrying a large cylinder. Despite a major cleanup, no one was hurt.

The truck was heading to the Port of Wilmington from Chattanooga, Tennessee.