Page 17 - Mississippi 811 Magazine 2018 Issue 3

customer claims the electric company we have had a bunch ot these in the

caused damage to their home, liusiness past that we dldn't know about. I'm

or equipment. It was during those surprised that there's not more talk

investigations that he began to notice about this problem," Mickey said.

a trend 7 several houses that suttered "It seems like a rash ot these have

electrical tires recently had toundation happened in the last year."

‘’‘’‘“k '‘’’“‘‘’"‘‘“d‘ since this problem is relatively new

"Last year, I saw maybe a dozen to the 811 community and electrical

toundation repairs that caused companies, Mickey wasn't sure ot a fail-

damage to homes one way or another, sate procedure that would prevent this ‘ \

sometimes quite catastrophic — in sort of disaster trom happening. but he J J F 9
some cases the house bumed down," did say that communication will be key

Mickey said. "one house had to the success ot tuture initiatives.

toundation work that caused it and two on D‘ m thing} he mmmmd In 81 1 .

“'2' ’‘°“‘“ “’ ‘’“‘''‘ “‘ “ ‘“"d°'5“° during a recent damage prevention \ I
Mickey said (In: during inveiggafions coiuncil meetlrgg was to ionsider adding .' , 0

es seen severa instances w n a in ormation a out oun ation repairs » u — _.

house gets jacked up, it causes a wire to tuture tickets, alcrting utility owner/ —' *3 A .

to pull out ot a lug in the meter socket, operators that this type or work would . , '“:.~— 'iT "‘x> , - l
causing a short But sometimes the be done. ‘
““'“‘° “'2 ‘“°’° “°"‘P“““‘“"" "If a contractor would contact us ahead - ' '

"The toundation repair that caused ot time, we'd roll a truck out with one

the three house fires on one cul-de-sac ot our design engineers —jusI like we V

pulled the energized conductor loose do when a customer wants new service ..

and down into the ground going into or an upgrade," he said. "we will look

the house," he said. "since everything at it and put into play countermeasures

is connected to ground, and the ground to allow them do what they need to do

is ultimately connected through water without any hazard or danger Any

lines back to the city mam,tl1nl'.~' how utility would be happy to do that."

it got to the other two homes. The S E h 1 __ H E d fl

plumbing got hot and charred the “"“ " ‘ 9 ‘°“'_’“‘‘’.“‘“ _ ° "““ 3 ‘“‘

. _ . _ ,, repair companies will ask the

""“°"‘" ‘“"“““ °“““°“ '1“ ‘"9" homeowner to call 811 to report the

surprisingly, the damage du2sn'I digging activity rather than handling _

always happen while the toundation the ticket request themselves, which also to ta| k W lth a n
work is underway 7 the hazard can complicates things, according to Mickey

linger undetected tor months. And many of the fuundntiun repair e X C a V at‘ 0 r’)
"we had an incident last ear where “°'“’““L" ‘l“‘ h""‘“°“"‘°”" *3“ ha“ '

i Y small print that absolves the contractor

the house had been leveled and the up my damgz ml my me mm 0
ffifzgfiféfgjdghfyflfigl:}'::*:j§:k"b°“' their work — including instances where 8 3 . 5 /o of
during a dry season. Duung the next §':;"‘° “““° “E” “““‘“5“‘ ““d ‘““*““‘ 8 1 1 M a g a 2 I n e
big rain the ground got saturated, ’ ‘

causing the ground to swell and the He also mentioned that its likely that re a d e r S a re
house to raise up a little more _ and not many leveling contractors are aware e x c a v a I 0 rs a n d
that was the straw that broke the that this problem can occur, as its y e S y 0 U C a n
camel's back. It caused damage to the certainly not something that happens on ‘

customer's apoliances.~ every jab r e a c h t h e m
Mickey thinks this problem is more "There may be toundation people out f0 I‘ '9 S S t h 3 H
widespread and common than one there who only know this is going 5 C e n ts .

might expect, given that not every on because they've experienced it

incident is investigated to its end. it themselves. it they've never lieen taced

a customer doesn't make a claim that with this, they might not know," he said.

coserv is responsilile tor an incident, H , h h . . _

his investi ations are icall wra ed V°“ *9 3 “’“°“‘’’““ ""3 ‘}“’ H : l: .r t - c on l‘

. 3 ‘W Y W t otworkdone makesure our " 3" "“"’l‘--“
up quickly, so there are likely dozens VP‘ I ' H‘ h V
ot other incidents that have gone “°'“”“ f" ‘” “W” .“‘.‘ ‘Y “E G re Q J on es
responsible tor sulimitting a ticket to

““d°“°‘“d‘ 311 betore they dig and request that 5 0 7—4 72 —O T '7 5
"we have an outside contractor that they also contact the electric company (H __ H‘ L, 7 g M we ’ m__‘_ N M
comes in and gives us expen torensic to ensure this type ot damage doesn't all ~ ‘J ‘ l‘ '— w v »=' - ‘
assistance on certain cases, so we've occur

learned a lot more about this. rm sure .

oh, and always read the tine print. .
Zolfillssuefl tnssssipalaii . 15