THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, March 25, 1996 TAG: 9603240279
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Larry Bonko
LENGTH: Medium: 80 lines
WELCOME TO the buzzing and popping Rowe home outside Abingdon, Va. Electrical surges have made this the house from hell.
Lightbulbs buzz and pop, stove circuit boards are charred like blackened pizza, the microwave doesn't work, and other household appliances have been ruined.
``We have literally lost a basket full of hair dryers and hair curlers that shorted out and won't work because of the electricity,'' Sandy Rowe said.
The Rowes are afraid they will come home some afternoon and find their house burned to the ground because of the mysterious electrical surges, which began in May 1993.
``There was an electrical storm, and we stood by a window and watched lightning strike a transformer on a pole about 100 feet from our house,'' Sandy said. ``Fireballs shot out of the transformer.''
Immediately after the lightning strike, the Rowes found that their well pump had been destroyed and the circuit board on the stove had been fried. Then their daughter came home and turned on the four-bulb light fixture in her room and all of the bulbs blew out at once.
``We couldn't buy enough bulbs to replace the ones that continued to blow out,'' Sandy said.
Every day or so, the couple returned home after work to find the telltale sign that electricity in their home had gone berserk: digital clocks in the house blinking ``12:OO.''
Since the storm, they have had three circuit boards on stoves fried at a replacement cost of $486 each. They bought a new stove last November, Sandy explained.
``Would you like to hear our new stove?'' she asked during a telephone interview last week.
``Hear your stove?'' I asked.
She extended the phone cord toward the stove. There was ominous buzzing sound like that of an electric razor. ``We got a new circuit board for it, and they're bringing it tomorrow,'' she said.
In the beginning, the Rowes thought there might be faulty wiring in their home, but inspections by about a dozen electricians didn't locate any.
Last May they were sitting in the kitchen when smoke began to gush from the refrigerator - their last appliance that had not been damaged by electrical surges.
``I just sat there and cried because we'd lost so many expensive things,'' Sandy said. A few days before the refrigerator shut down, the motors on the washing machine and dryer burned out, all apparently caused by power surges.
``When the washing machine blew, oil poured into the spinning drum where the clothes were and ruined them,'' Charles said.
The Rowes have spent more than $3,500 to replace appliances, not including minor items like light bulbs, curlers, hair dryers and burned out wall switches. And they have asked their electrical utility, American Electric Power, to reimburse them.
The power company has said it isn't sure whether the problem is its or the Rowes.
AEP's workers have hooked the home to an above-ground power line, placed monitors on each line leading to the house and have replaced the transformer outside.
Charles said that immediately after the above-ground line was installed - about three weeks ago - the VCR burned out. The power company reimbursed them for that, he said.
Sandy said her husband lost his job when the company he worked for went out of business in September, and they are rapidly going into debt. The heat pump hasn't worked since '93, she said. The Rowes chops wood to heat the house. They once ate sandwiches for six months after the stove blew out.
``We have a microwave oven that still works,'' she said. ``That's a miracle.''
After what the Rowes have been through, any of us would be feeling a little haywire. ILLUSTRATION: Color AP photo
Sandy and Charles Rowe in their kitchen of their home, where they
have replaced most of their appliances.
by CNB