I'd vote call them too. I figure there's little to lose.
To cut a long story short, I was once at my father in laws house and attempting to replace a burnt element in his water heater.
Consequently, I was sitting in some moisture on the ground. Panel switch was killed to heater (did it myself and checked with VOM) and I was getting a mild shock every now & then.
Finally, killed power to entire house and was working in pitch black with a flashlight being held behind me STILL getting a mild shock every now & then.
Finally got the system back together turned things back on and nothing blew up.
Called brother in law (electrician) and seems he called the power company the next day.
Turns out that somewhere along the pole line, one of the wires had snapped and was laying on the ground allowing juice to work through the ground (dirt earth) and I guess up through the ground wire of the system.
(??)
I dunno....all over my head but all I know is they came out pronto and found their broken wire because of this and got it fixed.
Electricity always makes me a bit nervous, especially if I'm sitting in a puddle of moisture around a 220V appliance.
Sounds suspiciously like a grounding problem. The neutral to the house is interconnected with the system neutral. That is why there should be multiple connections at transformer installations. If not, and the connection from the transformer primary neutral is broken at the pole, it will use the domestic ground, and if that is disconnected while you're hanging on to it you're likely dead.
Similar things can happen in areas with poor grounding such as rocky, sandy and gravel soils.
Years ago I had a summer job ground testing with the local hydro. I believe they tested all the grounds on a 7 year cycle. However, as I worked the next 30 years in the industry it seems this preventative testing disappeared. That is too bad because I think we found around 5 to 7% of the tested locations needed additional grounding.
It is a similar situation for line patrols. Where I formerly worked all lines had to be patrolled at least once per year. In the interest of efficiency I think that has changed and they mainly let things fail.
Such policies may save utilities money, but it's dangerous and there are hidden costs. I have logged 3 calls to the ONE call centre (400 km away) for BC to report deciduous trees contacting the primary line. It only happens if there is a strong west wind (which is seldom here). The third time this fall I got more insistent, so the lady logged it as an emergency. The line crew came out and said since it was not an emergency (but they agreed it does contact sometimes). So they called the brushing supervisor who is to arrange to cut the trees.
At the same time I told them of a HUGE dead pine leaning over the primary five spans north of my place. I said it would definitely come down if we got a strong wind. They shrugged their shoulders and said there's nothing they can do unless it's an emergency. Guess what! It came down two days later tearing through the primary and neutral and hanging up on the telephone messenger. The same two guys were out on that Sunday putting things back up, plus another crew came out on the Monday to complete the cleanup.
There are many other similar places I mentioned to the crew. There has still been no action on my trees or the others.
I will definitely be calling again before summer. This is not simply a safety or inconvenience issue. It is thick forest here and gets VERY dry in the summer. If these things happen during the wrong time the whole area is gone.
This is what happens when MBA's and bean counters run industries. The focus turns to money instead of safe, reliable service.
END OF RANT
cheers
