NORTH CAROLINA’S STORM OF A LIFETIME - FLORENCE (THE AFTERMATH)

NORTH CAROLINA’S STORM OF A LIFETIME - FLORENCE:

IT’S NOT OVER YET - THE AFTERMATH IS WORSE THAN STORM.

HURRICANE FLORENCE DEVASTATES NORTH CAROLINA -

DEATH TOLL IS RISING.

COAST GUARD CALLED IN FOR SEARCH AND RESCUE.

HELP & PRAYER NEEDED FOR NC RESIDENTS.


Post Sources: Charlotte Observer, CNN, Fox News, Weather.com, WRAL, Youtube


***** Storm of a lifetime


For days, residents had been told to heed the warnings. Hurricane Florence, at its peak a Category 5, would be the "storm of a lifetime"for portions of the Carolina coast," the National Weather Service said.

It would bring powerful wind, relentless rain and life-threatening storm surge to an area that wasn't used to hurricanes.

More than 1 million people were under mandatory evacuation orders as the storm crawled toward the East Coast.

t would soon become clear why residents had been told to leave.

The calm before the storm

As Florence twisted over the Atlantic Ocean Thursday morning, 65-year-old Deb Frese took a walk along the shoreline. The Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, resident knew the storm could be keeping her inside for a while, so she wanted to fit in one last stroll.

Frese lived in the evacuation zone, about a mile from the beach, but she chose to ride the storm out in her home.

"Flooding, that's the biggest concern," said Frese. She also recognized that she might have to make do without power. But with a stockpile of food, batteries and lanterns, she was prepared to hunker down for "at least a week," she said.

"Then I might have to go."
'This is just the beginning'

By Thursday afternoon, Florence's wind speeds had dropped, and the storm was classified as a Category 2. But forecasters said its biggest threats remained: potentially deadly storm surge, flooding, and what was expected to be a historic rain event.

In New Bern, North Carolina, along the banks of the Neuse River, a CNN crew watched the water rise and flood Union Point Park until they were forced to leave.

Todd Willis, a resident of Kennel Beach, North Carolina, shared video on Facebook of tidal flooding. It was early in the afternoon, and water was already collecting beneath homes lofted on stilts. Some water inched up to the road as Willis drove by.

"This is just the beginning," he said. "It hasn't even gotten here yet and there's already water (in the) bottom parts of people's houses."

By evening, the storm was downgraded to a Category 1. But conditions continued to deteriorate into the night, as thousands of evacuees slept in emergency shelters.

Annazette Riley-Cromartie's home in eastern North Carolina began to flood around midnight. As her kids tried to sleep in a top bunk, her husband could hear voices in the distance.

"While we were still waiting, my husband kept hearing people yelling for help," she told CNN's Anderson Cooper, her voice thick with emotion. Her 6-foot-2 husband tried to go out and help, she said, but the water was already above his chest.

"You just keep hearing people yelling, and you can't do anything," she said. "It's the worst feeling in the world."

Back in New Bern, 200 people trapped in their homes were plucked from the water overnight.

"WE ARE COMING TO GET YOU," the city tweeted. "You may need to move up to the second story, or to your attic, but WE ARE COMING TO GET YOU."

By sunrise Friday, the town had seen about 7 inches of rainfall and 10 feet of storm surge, and scores of people still needed saving.
Trapped by floodwater

At 7:15 a.m., Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina, became eerily calm as the eye of Hurricane Florence, now a Category 1 storm, loomed overhead.

Florence, with maximum sustained winds of 90 mph, had made landfall.

Trees swayed from the wind and toppled over, blocking roads. Deserted streets flooded and swollen rivers escaped their banks. Power transformers exploded in bursts of light like fireworks, leaving hundreds of thousands of electric customers in the dark. Whole neighborhoods soon became swamps.

Back in New Bern, the Cajun Navy and other ragtag teams of volunteers joined emergency responders to rescue people from the rising water.

As water poured into their homes, residents sought refuge in attics.

"In a matter of seconds, my house was flooded up to the waist, and now it is to the chest," Peggy Perry told CNN's Chris Cuomo Friday morning.

"We have been up here for like three or four hours."
In River Bend, south of New Bern, a man shouted out of his open window at a small boat that had been left behind and commandeered by the Maryland Swift Water Rescue Team.

But when they asked if he needed help, the man said no.
He had everything he needed, he said. He just wanted to say hello.

The first deaths

A tree came crashing down on a house in Wilmington, North Carolina.

A family of three was inside the home, and emergency responders worked for hours to save them.

In the afternoon, authorities confirmed that a woman and her infant daughter were dead -- the first known deaths attributed to Florence. The child's father was taken to a local hospital.

A group of firefighters who had rushed to the scene were shaken. They knelt outside the home in a circle and began to pray.

It's time to go'

By Friday evening, Florence had been downgraded to a Tropical Storm.

But the rain showed no signs of abating and rivers continued to spill over their banks.

On Saturday morning, the National Weather Service warned of the possibility of "catastrophic flooding."

"We face walls of water at our coast, along our rivers, across farmland, in our cities and in our towns," North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper told reporters that morning. "More people now are facing imminent threat than when the storm was just off shore."

Susan Bostic and her family had initially planned to wait out the storm in their Rocky Point, North Carolina home, not far from the Cape Fear River.

They changed their minds on Saturday, as water from the river spilled onto their property, collecting in big pools on the ground.

Bostic had lived through Hurricane Floyd in 1999, she said, and it took everything -- cars, clothes, her home.

"And they're expecting this to be even higher," she said. "So we know it's time to go."

About 40 miles to the northeast, in Jacksonville, North Carolina, Marti Dias was grappling with the same realization. She watched water from the New River slowly creep up her street, mailboxes jutting above the surface. Some of her neighbors had already left. It was time to go.

"I'm not going to lie, I cried this morning," she told CNN. "I broke down and cried."

Residents of Lumberton, North Carolina, also kept a wary eye on their own Lumber River, which quickly rose foot after foot as heavy rains continued to drench the state. The river had inundated Lumberton two years before, during Hurricane Matthew, and city officials scrambled this week to plug a hole in the town's levee system.

As floodwaters rose, roads quickly became impassable. An abandoned car was left running idle in the street with water lapping at the passenger windows.

That night, emergency responders and volunteers in Wilmington, North Carolina, made about 700 rescues; Pender County conducted 172, and lost two ambulances in the floodwaters.

By the end of the day, 13 people would be confirmed dead, several of them from flash flooding.

On Saturday evening, Hailey Burgalow was traveling to Virginia with her sister, her sister's boyfriend and her aunt when they hit flooding on Interstate 95, forcing them to pull off and venture into Lumberton.

The town was still in the process of recovering from Hurricane Matthew, and many homes appeared to be abandoned or in disrepair, their windows boarded up and weeds growing tall in the yards.

The group parked at a gas station and tried to get some sleep in the car, Burgalow told CNN. Eventually, a police officer stopped, and they asked him if there was any way to make their way north. There wasn't, the officer told them. He directed them to a shelter that was filled with evacuees.

"They ran out of cots and blankets," Burgalow told CNN. "It was super crowded, but we were thankful."
On Sunday morning, Burgalow and her family realized they were stuck there.

Flooded roads and fragile levees

The National Hurricane Center issued its final advisory for Florence on Sunday morning as the storm, crawling inland, weakened to a tropical depression with maximum sustained winds of 35 mph -- but plenty of rain was still on its way.

The center said in its last advisory that southeast North Carolina could see up to 40 inches of rain, and also warned of the risks of landslides across western North Carolina and southwest Virginia.

Wilmington Mayor Bill Saffo called the flooding in the northern part of the county a "phenomenon," and "something we've never seen before." The city was essentially cut off from the rest of the state because of high waters, he said.

Any direction you try coming into the city -- from 20 to 40 miles out, roads are impassable," he said. "Anyone trying to get in here -- don't try. You will be turned away."

The Lumber River was close to 25 feet high by midday -- 12 feet above flood stage. At 26 feet, Lumberton city officials said, the levee around the river could be overwhelmed.

At that point, "all bets are off," said Corey Walters, deputy director of Public Works.

The rain had slowed down overnight, he said, giving officials another chance to try and plug the gap in the levee system -- but Walters didn't sound optimistic.

"Our crews are taking one more crack at trying to stop it," Walters said. "We're just fighting time here. There's another rain band that's going to be coming through and we know it. We're expecting to get another 4 to 6 inches."

Water began seeping beneath the sand barriers workers had placed there Sunday afternoon.

Bobby Hunt was just about finished packing belongings into the back of his pickup truck.

"Y'all ready? Lets get in the truck and get out of here," Hunt told his wife and cousin as they prepared to leave their boarded-up Lumberton home, which still bore the damage from Hurricane Matthew.

That storm had caught them by surprise with flooding in the middle of the night, he told CNN.

But after being told by the city that the levee could be overwhelmed, the family didn't hesitate to leave.

On Sunday, Bostic, who fled her Rocky Point home the day before, learned she and her family got out just in time.

Her home, about 200 yards from the river bank, was submerged, and the water was still rising.
Nearly 20 years after Bostic lost almost everything to Hurricane Floyd, Florence would also force her to start over.
It's not over

On Sunday, two more deaths were confirmed in South Carolina, bringing the toll to at least 18.

Hundreds upon hundreds had been rescued in the Carolinas.

There were at least 170 patients in four medical shelters across the state, and officials believed more would be on their way as the rescues and flooding continued throughout the day.

Pender County, North Carolina officials said they had received 300 calls for help by Sunday.

Rescue attempts and other essential services were hindered by a lack of fuel.

Gov. Cooper accompanied the Coast Guard on a flyover of flooded areas in North Carolina.

He said he saw significant flooding in the farmland of Jacksonville and throughout Onslow County.

In New Bern, where the drama of Friday morning had significantly diminished, the governor saw boats washed up in town and significant debris.

Flying over Fayetteville, he said, "it was stark to see the raging Cape Fear River, and you knew it was rising and you could see these vulnerable communities."

We've got a tall task ahead," Cooper said.

The rain had slowed a little in Fayetteville, but officials there worried that would lure residents into a false sense of security and prompt them to make their way back.

"We're going to get hammered," said Kevin Arata, the city's director of communications.

"The worst is still yet to come."

Charlotte's Poor & Seniors Suffer Most From Heat Wave: Fan & Air Conditioner Donations Needed

For the Poor, Heat is harder to escape

It’s like someone built a fire under the house.

That’s how Carolyn Farmer, 47, of Charlotte, describes what it has been like sleeping without air conditioning in recent weeks, as temperatures bounced between 90 and 100.

“It’s so hot, the mattress sticks to you,” Farmer said.

“I have a fan, but it just blows the hot air. You don’t sleep. You just stay up all night drinking water so you don’t dehydrate.”

On Friday – when the temperature hit 97 – Farmer was first in line as Crisis Assistance Ministry’s Free Furniture Bank began giving out nearly 1,000 air conditioners donated by Charlotte-based Electrolux.

It was one example of how charities and businesses are reaching out to help vulnerable people stay cool in this dangerously hot stretch of summer.

The heat wave is expected to continue with temperatures at or near 100 degrees Saturday and Sunday. The heat index likely will approach 105 degrees daily along and southeast of Interstate 85, forecasters say.

Electrolux officials said their gift comes in direct response to the heat.

Mayaanne Mays, 42, was among those who came for a free air conditioner. She has epilepsy and said she has been without air conditioning for more than a year. As the heat has worsened, so have her seizures, she said.

Mays didn’t have transportation and intended to carry the 45-pound appliance home on her lap via a city bus.

An Electrolux employee offered to give her a ride instead, and she accepted.

“This is going to change my life,” Mays said. “It’s 95 degrees in my house in the middle of the night. I have spent a lot of time at neighbors’ houses, just to stay cool.”

Antoinette Davis, who is also disabled, said she has been without air conditioning all year and has taken to occasionally sticking her head in the refrigerator, just to breathe the cool air.

The 48-year-old said the heat has made her dizzy at times and even blurred her vision.

“I would go to a park and sit under a tree, because it was actually cooler than my house,” she said.

The heat has also prompted the Red Cross to open a cooling station for the second weekend in a row at uptown’s Hal Marshal Annex, and the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Senior Centers has issued a plea for donated fans after exhausting its supply of 700 in a record four weeks.

Crisis Assistance Ministry is also seeing an increase in people needing help paying utility bills, including those who lived through the spring without electricity, but now find the heat unbearable.

Tovi Lynn Martin of Crisis Assistance likens it to “camping out in your house.” The agency sees an average of 200 people a day.

“With no power and no water, there comes a point when people are jeopardizing their health,” Martin said.

Red Cross officials said it’s the same concern that prompted the opening of a cooling center at 618 N. College St. this weekend. The center attracted 80 to 150 people last weekend, including the elderly, disabled and homeless.

“When temperatures get in the triple digits, it’s necessary for people to get out of the heat and some simply have no place else to go,” said Kate Meier of the Red Cross.

The Crisis Assistance Free Furniture Bank provides donated furniture to low-income families via referrals. Carol Hardison, executive director of Crisis Assistance, noted appliances are in short supply, making the Electrolux gift much needed.

Caryn Klebba of Electrolux said the giveaway, valued at $140,000, marks a first for the company, which has about 700 employees in Charlotte.

Klebba said the company contacted Crisis Assistance because the agency has the capability of screening recipients quickly.

Carolyn Farmer said she didn’t believe it at first when she heard of the offer.

“I’m going to cook my first meal in a long time tonight, thanks to God and Electrolux,” she said. “It’s been too hot to cook, and I’ve been eating cold cuts too long.”


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Sources: McClatchy Newspapers, WCNC, Google Maps

Duke Energy Investigated After Merger; It's FAKE! Duke Energy Owns North Carolina!

North Carolina To Probe Duke Takeover Of Progress Amid CEO Exit

North Carolina is investigating Duke Energy Corp. (DUK)’s $17.8 billion takeover of Progress Energy Inc. after the company unexpectedly changed its chief executive officer.

“This significant management change within hours after the merger has put the company on credit watch, so we need to get to the bottom of this to make sure we protect consumers,” North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper said yesterday in an e- mailed statement.

Three former Progress Energy Inc. board members said they would have voted against the takeover had they known that Duke’s chief executive officer would remain in charge of the combined companies.

Duke announced on July 3 that Bill Johnson, the chairman and CEO of Progress, had resigned and wouldn’t take over as president and CEO of the combined companies as planned. Duke Chairman and CEO James Rogers, who was supposed to be chairman after the merger, was asked by the board to continue as CEO.

“I wouldn’t have voted for the deal,” James Bostic Jr., who served on Progress’s board since 2002, said in a phone interview yesterday. “It was the board’s belief that that Bill Johnson would be able to run the combined companies in a more efficient manner and offer a much stronger return to shareholders.”

Standard & Poor’s

Standard & Poor’s put Duke, the largest U.S. utility owner by market value, on negative credit watch after “the abrupt change in executive leadership.” The surprise decision to change CEOs as its takeover closed was deceitful, according to John H. Mullin, who also served on Progress’s board.

“I do not believe that a single director of Progress would have voted for this transaction as structured with the knowledge that the CEO of Duke, Jim Rogers, would remain as the CEO of the combined company,” Mullin, a former managing director for investment banker Dillon Read & Co., wrote in a July 5 letter to the Wall Street Journal.

The new Duke board met without Rogers or Johnson and decided on the switch, Rogers said in a July 3 interview. Under terms of the merger, the board is composed of 11 Duke representatives and seven from Progress. Bostic and Mullin were among eight Progress directors who weren’t added to the new board.

North Carolina’s attorney general opened an investigation to determine if Duke Energy lied to regulators or consumers to get merger approval and win a rate increase requested last year, according to the statement from Cooper.

Higher Rates?

Cooper is concerned that a potential credit downgrade from Standard & Poor’s could lead to higher utility rates and has asked for information from top company officials and directors, the statement said.

“We are evaluating the attorney general’s request and will respond in due course,” Tom Williams, a spokesman for Charlotte, North Carolina-based Duke, said in an e-mail.

The North Carolina Utilities Commission said yesterday that it also will open an investigation into the transaction, according to a state filing. The commission ordered Rogers to appear at a hearing on July 10 to explain the timing of the decision to replace Johnson. Rogers will testify at the meeting, Williams said in an e-mailed statement.

“We do not comment on our board’s deliberations,” Williams, said in a separate e-mail. The company said on July 3 it wouldn’t comment further on Johnson’s resignation, which it has said was done by “mutual agreement.”

Johnson, who signed a non-disparagement agreement with Duke, didn’t respond to a voicemail message left at his North Carolina home.
‘Work Together’

“There was information that Duke didn’t share with us, and it may have changed the outcome,” Alfred Tollison, another former Progress director, said in a phone interview yesterday. “Duke may have fulfilled the letter of the agreement, but they didn’t fulfill the spirit,” he said, referring to Johnson occupying the CEO position for one day.

The merger was announced in January 2011 and completed on July 2 after receiving state and federal approvals. Progress’s board unanimously recommended that shareholders vote in favor of the deal, according to a July 2011 regulatory filing.

“I don’t really have any idea what would have happened,” said Bostic, a former vice president of Georgia-Pacific LLC. “I expected that Johnson and Rogers were going to work together and they were going to make this a successful merger.”

Mullin’s letter was reported yesterday by the New York Times and Wall Street Journal.
Duke fell 3.4 percent to $66.23 at the close yesterday in New York, the biggest decline since Aug. 10.

Johnson’s appointment as CEO of the new company was “a critical element in the merger deliberations,” Mullin wrote in the letter. “This is the most blatant example of corporate deceit that I have witnessed during a long career on Wall Street.”







NC State Officials to review Duke-Progress merger after CEO's ouster

The North Carolina Utilities Commission has scheduled a meeting next Tuesday to review the merger of Duke Energy Corp. and Progress Energy Inc. in the wake of the sudden ouster of the combined utility's chief executive.

Separately, North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper demanded late Friday that Duke turn over all communications among top executives and board members during the days leading up to and following the merger.

Cooper said the his office wants to investigate Duke's dealings in light of a potential credit downgrade, which he says puts consumers at risk.

The Utilities Commission approved the Duke-Progress merger, which created the nation's largest utility, a week ago. The merger was completed Monday, after South Carolina regulators similarly gave their approval, but within hours, there was a management shake-up.

Progress Energy Chief Executive Bill Johnson, who had been slated to be CEO of the new company, was forced to resign, and he was replaced by Duke Energy Chief Executive Jim Rogers, who was to have been chairman.

The Utilities Commission has the power under state law to revisit its approval, and it could "rescind, alter or amend" the merger.

Part of Statute 62-80 reads as follows:

"The Commission may at any time upon notice to the public utility and to the other parties of record affected, and after opportunity to be heard as provided in the case of complaints, rescind, alter or amend any order or decision made by it. Any order rescinding, altering or amending a prior order or decision shall, when served upon the public utility affected, have the same effect as is herein provided for original orders or decisions."

Robert Gruber, director of the commission's Public Staff, which represents consumers in utility cases, said the commission plans to discuss the merger again next week, although a time for the meeting hasn't been set.

Commission Chairman Ed Finley said Tuesday that he was surprised by Johnson's departure.

"My understanding, based on Duke and Progress representations in our hearing, was that Johnson would be CEO of the combined company. His departure on the same day the merger is closed and three days after our order may raise questions in the minds of some as to the timing of the decision by those involved in it," Finley said in a statement.

"While management structure and succession are important, a more significant emphasis will be on ensuring that the benefits to the ratepayers will materialize as forecast," he said. "There is significant management talent within the two companies, and we hope the best lineup will fall quickly into place."

Standard & Poor's Financial Services said Wednesday it has put Duke on a watch list for a potential credit downgrade because Johnson was removed.

Duke Energy spokesman Tom Williams said the utility looks forward to resolving those concerns soon.

Cooper said Duke officials argued for a rate increase last fall, saying they needed to protect the company's credit rating. Now, consumers could be harmed by a credit downgrade prompted by the management shake-up, he said, so he wants to determine if anything was misrepresented to state regulators.

"Despite our objection, Duke Energy said it needed a rate increase in order to protect its credit. Now, this significant management change within hours after the merger has put the company on credit watch, so we need to get to the bottom of this to make sure we protect consumers," he said in a statement.

The state Attorney General's Office has appealed the 7 percent rate increase that the Utilities Commission approved to the North Carolina Supreme Court.

Duke officials are reviewing Cooper's demand for internal communications, Williams said.

Former Progress board members upset

Former board members of Progress Energy are upset that Johnson was pushed out.

"In my opinion, this can only be described as an incredible act of bad faith with regard to the undertakings of the Merger Agreement. I think it was a clearly premeditated contravention of one of the most central tenets of our Agreement," John Mullin III wrote in a letter to The Wall Street Journal.

Mullin, who lives in Virginia, was lead director on the Progress board, a position that he said left him "in charge" of board meetings at which Johnson, who was chairman, did not attend.

He wasn't named to the 18-member board for the combined Duke Energy and therefore wasn't at the meeting where the decision was made to remove Johnson.

"In my opinion this is the most blatant example of corporate deceit that I have witnessed during a long career on Wall Street and as a director of ten publicly traded companies," he wrote in his letter to the Journal.

Mullin said Johnson called him Monday night.

"He told me there was a change in direction," he said Thursday. "I was very surprised."

Asked for comment about the Mullin letter, Tom Williams, a Duke spokesman, said: “We do not comment on our board’s deliberations.”

Another former Progress director, Alfred Tollison Jr., said he felt he was misled about the plans for Johnson to head the newly combined company.

Bloomberg News on Friday spelled out details of the severance and compensation package Johnson would receive. It could total more than $44 million.

A May supplemental filing by the Utilities Commission stipulates that any severance agreement must be covered by shareholders, not ratepayers.


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Sources: Bloomberg News, McClatchy Newspapers, NBC17, WCNC, WRAL, Youtube, Google Maps

Duke Energy Dumps Progress Energy CEO After Merger: Is North Carolina The "Dirty South"?

Progress CEO is out as Duke, Progress complete merger

After Duke Energy and Progress Energy completed their merger Tuesday morning, the combined utility announced that Progress' top executive, Bill Johnson, who had been designated to lead the new firm, has resigned "by mutual agreement."

In an unexpected turn of events, Duke Chairman and Chief Executive Jim Rogers will be CEO of what is now the nation's largest utility.

Rogers had been scheduled to serve as chairman and Johnson as president and CEO.

However, in the announcement early Tuesday of the formal merger closing and the formation of a new board of directors, the new Duke Energy said Rogers was staying and Johnson was out.

Johnson had been a strong advocate for the merger and was planning to buy a home in Charlotte, according to a report in The Charlotte Observer.

Contacted by WRAL.com, a Duke spokesperson in Charlotte said the company had no further comment about Johnson's departure. Company officials also refused to talk about it during a conference call later Tuesday morning.

"That's it," the Duke spokesperson said, referring to the press announcement.

Johnson would not be made available for comment, the spokesman said when asked. He had been CEO at Progress since October 2007, when his predecessor and friend, Robert McGehee, died of a heart attack.

Asked if Johnson's departure would have any impact on Duke's plans for post-merger Progress operations in Raleigh, he replied: "No."

Still, Raleigh officials were caught off guard by the move and expressed some trepidation about the utility's presence in the Capital City.

"(There's) concern and a little disappointment because I think Progress Energy is a great company (and) has been for us for many, many years in the city of Raleigh," City Councilman John Odom said. "I was hoping that they might be a mainstay in downtown Raleigh and Raleigh all over. Now, we have no idea."

Progress previously said it expected to cut at least 700 jobs in Raleigh, where it's name is on the downtown performing arts center and other local groups count on its philanthropy.

"Even though it's a big shake-up on Day 1, you really have to give them some time and see how it plays out," Mayor Nancy McFarlane said. "We're still the state capital. They're still going to be coming to Raleigh for all sorts of things. Right now, I still take them at their word (that) they plan on being a good presence here (and) a good community partner."

Ed Finley, chairman of the North Carolina Utilities Commission, which approved the merger last week, said that company officials never indicated to the commission that Johnson wouldn't be part of the management of the combined utility.

"His departure on the same day the merger is closed and three days after our order may raise questions in the minds of some as to the timing of the decision by those involved in it," Finley said in a statement. "While management structure and succession are important, a more significant emphasis will be on ensuring that the benefits to the ratepayers will materialize as forecasted.

"There is significant management talent within the two companies, and we hope the best lineup will fall quickly into place," he said.

The regulatory approval from North Carolina and South Carolina, which came Monday, were the final hurdles Duke and Progress needed to close the deal.

Progress will now operate as a subsidiary of Duke.

“Having served as CEO of Duke and its predecessor companies for more than 23 years, Jim Rogers is well-suited to lead the integration effort and to drive our combined businesses forward,” Ann Maynard Gray, the lead director of the Duke board, said in a statement. “The board of directors looks forward to working with Jim and the rest of the executive team to enhance our position as a utility with financial strength and a greater ability to meet the needs of our customers.”

Gray made only a brief comment about Johnson, saying he was “instrumental in helping us close the merger with Progress Energy" and wishing him well in the future.




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Sources: McClatchy Newspapers, WCNC, WRAL, Google Maps

Heat Wave Hammers Mid-Atlantic, East & Southern States: Elderly & Homeless Most Vulnerable

Lives in danger as many seek refuge from extreme heat

People in a huge swath of the United States are being urged to seek out shelters as needed on Sunday as a historic heat wave continues to bring sizzling temperatures -- including to some who have lost power.

Extreme heat is the leading cause of weather-related deaths in the United States.

Twenty states were either partially or entirely under excessive heat warnings or heat advisories on Sunday, according to the National Weather Service.

Temperatures over 100 degrees Fahrenheit were expected in much of the Southeast.

New York City was among the sites in the Northeast facing heat advisories.

The National Weather Service said the advisory would be in effect from noon until 7 p.m. ET for the city, with temperatures expected in the mid-90s. When combined with humidity, it could feel like 100 degrees.

Over the past week, nearly 1600 high temperatures have been broken -- including 140 all-time highs, according to the National Climatic Data Center. Statistics for Saturday, when more records were broken, were not yet available.

Meanwhile, a derecho -- or massive storm -- that moved across the Ohio Valley to the Northeast on Friday left 12 people dead and millions without electricity.

Many remained without power on Sunday.

Some residents in the affected areas, particularly between Chicago and Washington, were likely to see high temperatures in the 90s or even 100 on Sunday, said CNN Meterologist Sarah Dillingham. "Even with areas seeing temperatures in the 80s to low 90s, no air conditioning will still pose a major threat."

"Residents who have no air conditioning are urged to find local cooling shelters or other air conditioned establishments to keep cool. It is imperative people do anything they can to try and beat the heat."

Cities throughout the affected regions opened cooling shelters and sites offering water.

"I'm very concerned with the problems created by the combination of power outages and severe heat," said Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who said it could take up to a week to get the power back up to everybody in the state.

Kasich also called out the Ohio National Guard to check on and help the state's most vulnerable, primarily the elderly and the ill.

While crews worked around the clock to restore power, hundreds of thousands of customers remained without electricity on Sunday.

FirstEnergy said four of its utility companies combined still had well over 300,000 customers without power Saturday night. AEP Ohio said it had more than 500,000 customers without power Saturday night.

BGE said Sunday morning it had more than 300,000 customers in Maryland still without power.

The deaths from Friday's storm stretched from Ohio to New Jersey. Most were the result of downed trees and power lines, according to officials.

The destruction prompted state of emergency declarations by governors of Maryland, Ohio, West Virginia and Virginia.

"This is not a one-day situation; it is a multiday challenge," said Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, who called it the largest power outage unrelated to a hurricane in the state's history.

In West Virginia, power outages forced the closure of a large number of gas stations after pumps were rendered inoperable.

Brian Duckworth waited in line for gas for nearly two hours in Vienna, along the West-Virginia-Ohio border.

"I wouldn't even be here because I have plenty of gas in my truck," Duckworth told CNN affiliate WTAP. "But I have to get gas for my generators and some backup gas."

The storm also affected Amtrak service, including shutting down service between Washington and Philadelphia on Saturday.

Those most inconvenienced were aboard a train that ended up grinding to a halt Friday night in Prince, West Virginia, after trees blocked tracks both in front of and behind it, Amtrak spokesman Steve Kulm said.

By late Saturday night, the 232 passengers -- who stayed aboard the Chicago-bound train, which had air conditioning and food -- had been taken off and put on buses so they could reach their final destinations, according to Kulm.

The storm's deaths included six in Virginia and two children in New Jersey, cousins who huddled with their families in a tent in Parvin State Park when strong winds felled a pine tree, crushing them.

Their relatives all survived relatively unscathed, said Larry Ragonese, a spokesman for New Jersey's Department of Environmental Protection.

In Washington, a couple was electrocuted after they went outside to check on downed power lines. The husband was killed while the wife -- who is in critical condition at a local hospital with burns -- is expected to survive, said police spokesman Araz Alali.

Emergency rooms in Prince George's County, Maryland, filled up over the weekend by people looking to escape the heat, said Fran Phillips, deputy secretary for the state's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

She noted that libraries and community centers across the state would stay open late to act as cooling centers.

Even in places where power was not disrupted, people with no air conditioning were advised to spend the day in a library, a cooling center or some other such place to avoid heat exhaustion.

In Atlanta, where temperatures hit a record-breaking 106 degrees on Saturday and were projected to hit 103 degrees on Sunday, cooling centers were ordered open across the city.


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Charlotte's Duke Energy Cuts Off Power In Low Income Homes During Heat Wave! For Shame!!!

ATTENTION CHARLOTTE AREA HOMELESS CITIZENS, SENIOR CITIZENS & LOW INCOME CITIZENS! THERE WILL BE COOLING CENTERS OPEN TODAY IN THIS REGION! THANK GOD!

This Morning Local Media Stations are reporting that today in Charlotte, NC there will be Cooling Stations Open in Uptown Charlotte at the Hal Marshall Building for People with NO Access to Central Air or Air Conditioners.

Who do you think is Responsible for News about Cooling Centers being Open in Charlotte? The Mayor! An Elected Official!

The Mayor's Office is Responsible for Communicating to the Public about Cooling Centers being available & Open to help provide Relief for Homeless People, Senior Citizens & Low Income People.

Its funny how whenever there is any news about the upcoming 2012 DNC Convention, that information is quickly reported by the Local Media & Local Newspapers. So why not Broadcast information about Open Cooling Centers in this region too?

I Don't Apologize for anything because I sincerely Care about regular, everyday People, NOT rubbing elbows with Politicians!

Duke Energy Company the Greedy, Electricity Monopoly for North Carolina, is cutting off Electricity for people who in Low Income Communities and for people who often use Air Conditioners, just to Conserve Energy for Wealthier Citizens who reside in Wealthy Charlotte Communities.

Unlike the Mid-Atlantic where Dangerous Electric Storms knocked out power to more than 2 Million People this weekend, North Carolina did NOT experience such Inclement Weather until Sunday evening.

I repeat.

North Carolina did NOT experience any Inclement Weather (Storms) until Sunday Evening, so why did Duke Energy cut off the Power of many Low Income & Middle Class Customers on Friday and Saturday during an Extremely Dangerous Heat Wave?

Low Income Customers who use Air Conditioners or lack Access to Central Air.
For example: Low Income Senior Citizens.

So.....

Why did Duke Energy cut off Energy to 6,000+ Customers, mostly Low Income BLACK Customers this weekend during one of the Worst Heat Waves in History?

They did it to Conserve Energy for Wealthy Customers, mainly Wealthy WHITE Customers.

That's Right!

Duke Energy Company did it to help Conserve Energy for Wealthy WHITE Customers who don't want to Pay High Utility Bills.

Its okay for Low Income & Middle Class Citizens (mainly BLACK Citizens) to pay Higher Utility Bills, but NOT North Carolina's Wealthy WHITE Citizens.

This is Nothing New about North Carolina!

Such Racist Practices have been in force the entire 20+ Years that I've lived here.

Duke Energy prefers to use Coal because its a Huge Money Maker and is Angry at the Obama Administration over its New EPA Standards recently upheld by a Federal Appeals Court.

Yes! Duke Energy Officials Will quickly smile in Pres. Obama's Face but behind his back they are Extremely Angry over the Enforcement of his EPA's Administration's Carbon Emission Reduction Standards to improve the Quality of Air.

And in case you are wondering if those Low Income Citizens pay lower Energy bills than the Wealthier citizens in North Carolina you are sadly Mistaken & WRONG!

To the Contrary it is the Low Income Citizens who are often charged Higher Energy Bills than the Wealthier Citizens in North Carolina.

Wealthier citizens can have every Appliance, Gadget & Heated Swimming Pools in their Homes while only being barely charged $100. a Month by Duke Energy, if that much.

On the other hand Low Income BLACK, North Carolina will simply own an Air Conditioner and a Washing Machine while being charged almost $200. EACH Month by Duke Energy.

Please don't tell me this is due to Wealthier Citizens living in Energy-Efficient Homes or having Energy-Efficient Appliances because its NOT!

Instead its due to North Carolina Still being a Klan-Ruled, Segregated State in the 21st Century!

The same thing happens with North Carolina's Piedmont Natural Gas Company and the Water Supply Companies.

ALL of North Carolina's Utility Companies frequently Charge Low Income & Middle Class, BLACK Citizens much Higher Utility Bills than they Charge Wealthy WHITE, North Carolina Citizens.

Excuse me but isn't that considered Discrimination?

Considering how Duke Energy, Piedmont Natural Gas Company and Charlotte Water Dept ALL receive Annual Federal Subsidies, isn't it ILLEGAL to Practice Discrimination against some Customers based on RACE????

This is why I'm NOT Biting my tongue about what REALLY goes on in the City of Charlotte or the State of North Carolina.

Some BLACK Charlotte Residents want to PRETEND that life is GREAT for BLACK People or GREAT for Low Income Citizens when its NOT!

Charlotte & the Entire State of North Carolina is still primarily a Klan-Ruled State and a Segregated, Klan-Ruled City.

BLACK and Low Income Citizens are frequently Mistreated & Thrown Under The Bus even by BLACK Politicians because those BLACK Politicians are Afraid to Change the Current, Racially Segregated, Unfair Institutional System.

During Election time BLACK Politicians often come knocking on BLACK Voters' doors with promises of FREE Fried Chicken, than after those Voters re-elect them those Same Selfish, BLACK Politicians throw their BLACK Constituents under the Bus to Appease North Carolina's WHITE Power Structure Officials.

What a Shame!!!

I Refuse paint a Rosy picture about life in Charlotte or life in the State of North Carolina when BLACKS & Latinos are still being treated as we were in the 1950’s, 1960’s and 1970’s.

Thus its imperative that people like myself who also live here, Expose to the World what's REALLY going on in this Region.

I am happy to report today that this Morning Local Media Stations are reporting that today in Charlotte, NC there will be Cooling Stations Open in Uptown Charlotte at the Hal Marshall Building for People with NO Access to Central Air or Air Conditioners.

Thank GOD!

I Thank God because I know he will protect me for doing what is Right.
NOT for doing what is Popular.

Please Keep Charlotte, NC in your daily Prayers.






Charlotte heat wave strains ailing, elderly and A/C

Tim Reilly says he knew there was trouble when he returned from work Friday evening and entered his University City townhouse.

Reilly and his wife Dana and their 108-pound bull mastiff Porter had joined the legions of Carolinas residents who lost their air conditioning at the worst possible time – on the day when Charlotte equaled its all-time heat record of 104 degrees.

Charlotte hit the 104-degree mark again Saturday, and the heat wave has air conditioning technicians scrambling to deal with calls from frantic customers who want cool air in their homes again. The situation isn’t likely to improve soon, with 101-degree high temperatures forecasted for Sunday and Monday in Charlotte.

Forecasters see only a gradual relenting of the heat over the next several days, as the powerful high pressure system responsible for setting hundreds of high temperature records across the eastern two-thirds of the nation gradually breaks down early this week. But high temperatures are still expected to be in the 90s all week – and in the upper 90s for the Independence Day holiday.

As of late Saturday afternoon, Medic had taken six people to Charlotte-area hospitals for heat-related injuries, spokeswoman Katie Rutland said. She said one person had life-threatening injuries and three others had potentially life-threatening injuries.

In northwest South Carolina, authorities in Abbeville County are awaiting autopsy results to determine if a 71-year-old man whose body was found in his trailer home near Calhoun Falls was a victim of the heat. When authorities arrived Friday afternoon, they discovered Billy Johnson dead in a home with no air conditioning and a small fan blowing.

If you’re looking for a glint of good news on the weather, and it’s just a glint, the Charlotte area will be under a heat advisory on Sunday, rather than the more severe excessive heat warning that was in place Saturday. That means a heat index of 105 degrees, rather than 110.

There will be one other difference Sunday and Monday. With the high pressure system weakening, clusters of thunderstorms that have been forming each day in the Midwest and pushing southward will be able to reach the Carolinas. That means there will be a chance of storms both Sunday and Monday nights.

All of that seemed very distant Saturday.

No escaping the swamp

Charlotte, Greenville-Spartanburg, Asheville and Raleigh were among many cities setting records for the date or the month. It was 107 degrees at 5 p.m. in Columbia, a day after it reached 108.

In the immediate Charlotte area, a number of automated thermometers recorded 105 or 106 degrees. Stacey Johnson, who lives off Rea Road in south Charlotte, said a temperature gauge there showed 111 degrees Friday. Even Boone, at 3,333 feet altitude, had a 91-degree temperature Saturday.

That was quite a test of air conditioning systems across the region. Like others without air conditioning, Tim and Dana Reilly had to make a decision Friday night – stick it out at home, or seek shelter with a friend or at a motel.

“We had offers from friends, but we didn’t want to bring our 108-pound dog with us,” Dana Reilly said. “So we stayed home.”

The got out several fans and slept on the floor, thinking the warmest air in their three-story townhouse would rise. The temperature slowly climbed to 83 degrees by the time Jeff Buhl, of All City Heat and Air Conditioning, arrived at 9 a.m. Saturday. The Reillys were the first of many service calls on Buhl’s schedule for the day.

Buhl got a “warm welcome” from the Reillys when he got out of his truck and walked to the rear entrance of the townhouse, where the air conditioning compressor was located. “I get that a lot during heat waves,” Buhl said. “I’m sort of a savior.”

This time, the fix was relatively easy. A capacitor had blown, and Buhl had the system repaired and running in 15 minutes.

“That’s fairly common,” said Buhl, who has spent about two decades in HVAC work. “A lot of times, they’ll blow from power surges.”

Within a half-hour, the temperature had dropped into the upper 70s at the Reillys’ residence. Buhl cautioned the couple that the cooling process would be a slow go, with temperatures climbing above 100 degrees again Saturday.

The most common problems with the systems are Freon leaks, blown capacitors and burned contactors, Buhl said. Occasionally, there’ll be a big problem – a motor or compressor failure.

Controlling the grid

But he saw several cases of another problem Friday.

“I had three calls from people with load boxes,” he said. Buhl said the boxes are installed by Duke Energy as a means of saving energy use during peak demand periods. Customers get lower electricity rates. In return, Duke Energy can cut off the power to high-use equipment, like air conditioning, for short periods of time, Buhl said. Typically, that is five to 10 minutes.

Buhl said some customers found their air conditioning units not working and immediately called for service.

“People get the boxes and don’t understand what they do,” he said. “There are tens of thousands of those boxes installed in the Charlotte area.”

Tim and Dana Reilly said it was the first time their air conditioning had gone out during a heat wave. “I hope it doesn’t happen again,” Dana Reilly said. “That was not pleasant.”

While the Reillys were able to cope with the lack of cooling, local officials are worried that some people – especially the elderly and those with chronic health problems – could be at serious risk without fans or air conditioning during the 100-degree weather.

Social service agencies opened cooling stations across the region, distributed financial aid so some people could pay their power bills and keep the air conditioning going and distributed fans.

In York County, sheriff’s office spokesman Trent Faris said deputies were delivering fans to those in need.

While residents without air conditioning are suffering, so are the technicians. Buhl spent two hours late Friday afternoon on the roof of an Eastway Drive restaurant, repairing a system. When he touched his knee to the roof surface, he received a burn.

“This is pretty hot stuff,” he said.





New Duke faces big tasks

As the new Duke Energy prepares to begin corporate life this week, after 18 months of regulatory filings and after-hours rulings, winning approval might start to look like the easy part.

In the years ahead, Duke’s leaders will have to mesh two corporate cultures into the nation’s largest utility and trim 1,860 jobs. They will spread $650 million in operating savings among Carolinas customers – while raising rates. They’ll decide the fate of a crippled nuclear reactor in Florida and try to settle the huge cost overruns of a new plant in Indiana.

The $32 billion merger with Progress Energy will give Duke the financial heft and political muscle that make hard problems a little easier to solve. It culminates decades of growth through mergers and acquisitions for both companies. North Carolina regulators approved the deal Friday; South Carolina’s utilities commission meets on the final piece Monday.

Wall Street is bullish on the deal, which diversifies Duke’s earnings and power sources. Duke’s stock price has surged 30 percent, and Progress’ stock 35 percent, since the merger was announced in January 2011.

For Duke’s 7.1 million customers, it’s a mixed bag. They’ll see a power company that’s leaner and, Duke hopes, more efficient. It will be able to borrow money at lower rates, saving money for customers.

But customers pay for what utilities build, and Duke is on a construction binge. After decades of little change, power bills are going up.

Old coal plants, some dating to the 1920s, will be shut down rather than upgraded to meet new environmental standards. Duke and Progress are building new natural-gas plants to take advantage of cheaper, cleaner fuel. Both want to build nuclear plants – price tags estimated in the $10 billion range – but may share new ones with other utilities.

“All of that is going to drive our prices up,” Duke CEO Jim Rogers told the Observer. “The reason you do a merger is to make you stronger financially, but also because anything that offsets a rise in price is a good thing.”

Before the merger, Duke already had invested more than $3 billion in three new power plants. It won a 7 percent North Carolina rate hike in January to pay for them, raising typical customer bills $7, and will ask for another this summer. This fall, Progress, which has nearly $2 billion in new plants to pay for, will seek its first base-rate increase since 1988.

For most Carolinas customers, the $650 million in fuel savings Duke will share with them over five to six years will come to about $1 a month.

The new Duke Energy will be the world’s second-largest private utility, the company says. If it were a nation, its generating capacity would rank 14th-largest globally, just behind South Korea. Rogers jokes that he’s ruled out applying for membership in the United Nations.

The combined political action committees of Duke and Progress would be the state’s largest, based on past spending, the watchdog group Democracy North Carolina has reported. Duke is likely to be interested in nuclear plant financing, environmental rules and carbon legislation.

Environmentalists insist that, with its new clout, Duke takes on a larger obligation to replace its coal plants with renewable energy.

“Duke has so much power that if they went in a new direction, it could change everything,” said Jim Warren, director of Duke’s most dogged merger opponent, the N.C. Waste Awareness and Reduction Network.

Duke’s to-do list

While the old Duke prided itself on its engineering savvy, power plants on the northern and southern ends of its new range show how wrong construction projects can go.

In Indiana, the Edwardsport coal-fired power plant has leading-edge technology that will produce low emissions but is more than $1 billion over budget. Duke’s former No. 2 executive and Indiana’s top utility regulator lost their jobs after chatting by email about it.

In Florida, Progress’ Crystal River nuclear plant needed large new replacement parts called steam generators. Progress punched a hole through the reactor’s thick concrete containment structure to replace the components. Now the concrete is failing.

Repairing the damage is estimated to cost up to $1.3 billion. Progress is negotiating with insurers but could end up retiring the reactor.

Crystal River loomed as Duke’s directors considered the Progress deal. The merger agreement gave Duke the option of walking away if costs rose enough to affect about 15 percent or more of the combined company’s value.

“We don’t perceive it as being that big a problem, so we don’t perceive our right to walk has been triggered,” Rogers said. “So the short answer is, this is in the ordinary course of business that this has happened, and we’ll deal with it.”

He ranks it No. 1 on the new Duke’s to-do list.

Destined for marriage?

The corporate marriage of Duke and Progress seemed inevitable to some of the people who have worked for the companies.

Both were born more than a century ago. Duke built its first hydroelectric plant on the Catawba River near Charlotte. Progress’ oldest still-operating hydro plant dammed the Pee Dee River, just 65 miles east.

Duke electrified the cotton mills that fueled Charlotte’s industrial growth. Progress became synonymous with downtown Raleigh, moving only three blocks, from Martin to Fayetteville streets, since 1908.

From its beginnings, Duke prided itself on building its own power plants and running them well. Engineers or linemen could expect to spend their careers there.

“The motto was, ‘Do it yourself and do it right,’ ” said Cathy Roche, a retired senior vice president who joined Duke in 1983. “We looked down on the companies that hired the big construction firms to build nuclear plants, with huge cost overruns.”

Duke and Progress have had separate retail territories in the Carolinas but competed for wholesale customers. They also helped each other make repairs after storms in the turbulent Southeast.

Through the decades, both grew by combining with other companies. Now they’re part of a national trend. In 1995, 98 investor-owned U.S. utilities operated. Last year there were 55.

Duke and Progress dabbled in natural gas as deregulation swept through the industry in the 1990s, but both have refocused on electricity.

Progress is considered the more conservative company.

It now owns only regulated businesses that provide service to state-designated territories, a model investors regard as less risky. Nearly one-quarter of Duke’s revenue last year came from unregulated commercial businesses, such as its western wind farms and international division in Latin America.

How merger talks began

Progress began talking about potential mergers with two unidentified utilities in 2009, according to securities filings. Duke identified Progress as a potential partner the next year.

An intermediary, Duke financial adviser JPMorgan Securities, put the companies in touch.

Both companies envisioned greater financial strength as a combination, including access to capital needed to build new nuclear plants. The Progress board would get their chief executive, Bill Johnson, as the new Duke CEO, and faster earnings growth. A move toward more regulated businesses appealed to Duke directors.

Rogers, then Duke’s CEO, called Johnson in July 2010 to ask for a meeting.

Over the following months, the companies sparred over the number of Duke shares to be swapped for each Progress share and the composition of the board. Negotiations continued until the eve of Jan. 8, 2011, when the merger agreement was signed.

Progress investors will get 2.6125 Duke shares for each of theirs and will own 37 percent of the combined stock. Duke will hold 11 of the 18 board seats and five of the top nine officers under Johnson and Rogers.

Phone calls came from other potential acquirers, to both companies, hours before Duke and Progress signed their deal.

2 cultures must become one

Now the new Duke, with more than 29,000 employees across six states, must make two cultures one.

“It’s not just about your asset and operational mix, it’s about how you do business,” Rogers said. “There’s a difference in the ‘how’ and we need to work together to find the common ‘how’ going forward.”

Some Duke workers contend the new company will be tilted toward Progress’ leadership, although executive charts roughly parallel the companies’ relative size.

“There is a general concern over why the Duke board of directors and Jim Rogers are allowing Progress to come in and run so much of the company when ultimately, we are bailing Progress Energy out,” one employee emailed the Observer last week.

Johnson, the new Duke CEO, says the utilities are more alike than not.

“They’re not so much cultural (differences) as style, maybe,” he said. “For example, Duke has a much broader business mix and they tend to think about a lot of issues, and we tend to think only about the utility business. Our scope of focus is a lot narrower, which allows us to really just focus on just one thing.

“That’s the difference between the two management teams that the Progress folks are going to have to adjust to, because all of a sudden we’re a lot broader and bigger.”

Johnson says he’ll work to soothe a workforce that’s jumpy after a long merger process that left some unsure whether they’ll have jobs.

True impact of mergers

Studies of past utility mergers show that predicted operating savings are often hard to achieve. Combined companies may not find real economies of scale if they’ve already slashed costs before merging.

“Pretty consistently, you could characterize utilities as putting forward claims that turn out to be optimistic,” said Peter Schwarz, a UNC Charlotte economics professor who studies the electricity industry. “The difficulties of operating the merged companies have typically been underestimated.”

Schwarz, who has researched electricity pricing for Duke, said the ultimate test of the merger’s impact is whether the company’s costs are lower than they would have been. If they are, he said, consumers as a whole should benefit.

Even then, he added, some customers could pay more.

Duke and Progress will operate separately in the Carolinas for a few years. Duke’s North Carolina rates are now lower than Progress’, but the rates will have to be roughly the same once the Progress name disappears.

North Carolina’s Public Staff, which advocates for retail customers, did its own studies of whether the $650 million in post-merger fuel savings the utilities projected are likely to be accurate. The staff will assess other operating savings when rate cases are filed this year.

“They’ve got every incentive in the world to achieve all the savings,” said Gisele Rankin, a Public Staff lawyer. “And if they don’t achieve them, we’ll ding them in the rate cases.”

The N.C. Utilities Commission, in approving Duke’s 2006 merger with Ohio-based Cinergy, ordered Duke to return 42 percent of its expected savings to customers.

That translated into a one-year, $117.5 million rate cut.

For decades, utilities used mergers to grow. Now they more often see combinations as a way to stay profitable amid slumping demand while building new power plants and upgrading older ones.

“The logic has changed from what mergers used to be about,” said Pattabi Seshadri, a Dallas partner with The Boston Consulting Group in Dallas. “It used to be about bigger scale, growth and access to different markets. Now it’s more defensive in preserving balance-sheet strength and building financial flexibility.”

Utilities that overpay for acquisitions, cede too much to regulators or don’t find post-merger efficiencies can fail to add value, studies show.

An analysis by the global management consulting firm found that fewer than half of the utility mergers from 1997 to 2005 met their savings goals. Total shareholder returns typically fell after mergers.

Despite that, the group says merger opportunities await. Five utility mergers were announced in 2011, including the Duke-Progress deal.

Rogers predicts Duke will be in no hurry to make more acquisitions.

“But you have to be opportunistic,” he added. “That’s one of the lessons I learned, that you have to be opportunistic in what may come your way.”


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