Power Outages Are Scattered, but Inconvenient

Kaiser Permanente's Durham/Chapel Hill medical office was closed Thursday because of a pipe that broke during the storm. Nortel's Building 35 on Davis Drive and the Lincoln Community Health Center were both closed due to lack of power.

That meant that, long after the storm ended, the effects were still being felt by many. There was a steady flow of disappointed visitors to the health center. With the office closed, patients who had appointments were not notified of cancellation.

"I've had an appointment for two months and no one even called me to tell me it was closed," said Shafonda Price. "I had to take off from work to take my son to the ear, nose and throat clinic that is only done here every once in a while. I feel like there's certain things, like the WIC program and the medication that older people need, and the babies need, and this is ridiculous."

Lincoln serves people who otherwise could not afford health care. Many expressed puzzlement about where to turn with the center closed.

"You can't do much if you don't have the facility," said Lincoln health worker Claire Crenshaw. "But all emergencies will be taken care of. There's nothing to worry about there. Other patients who have appointments scheduled can call back in the morning and reschedule their appointments."

The transformer that got hit serves only the health center. No houses or other buildings around Lincoln were affected by the outage.