CORPUS CHRISTI, Tx — Stephan and Sheryl Danielsen, owners of S&S Monuments, walked into their building in July to find most of their equipment not working after a power surge.
"He shorted himself out. And in the process, he killed the phase three going into my building," Stephan Danielsen said.
Danielsen, who opened the family business in 2019, says a possum climbed on top of an electric transmitter and caused his business to lose power, which fried all of his equipment.
"Obviously we couldn't afford to replace absolutely everything," Danielsen said.
Danielsen says he's spent around $12,000 to get the business back up and running. Without phone lines for a day and a half, customers couldn't reach him during a critical time.
"And we receive 30 to 40 calls a day," Danielsen said.
He believes the incident could have been prevented if trees near the power lines connecting to the transmitter had been properly maintained.
"Who was supposed to make sure these trees are good? So, this is AEP's problem," Danielsen said.
Danielsen filed a claim with AEP, but the utility company responded in a letter stating their investigation determined the incident was caused by an animal, which was beyond their control.
"Hold on a second man, you're not talking about a huge company," Danielsen said.
He says running a small business is already challenging enough without dealing with preventable power issues.
"They're denying it because a possum shorted it out. My argument is if you maintained your trees…the possum would've never been up there," Danielsen said.
Danielsen says it's been three weeks since AEP promised crews would clear the trees, but nothing has happened.
Omar Lopez, AEP's director of communications, admits the tree trimming response could have been better.
"It is our responsibility to manage that vegetation," Lopez said.
Lopez says crews are now scheduled to check the power lines.
"I have a crew going out there today. We're gonna reevaluate everything and see if we need to trim some more," Lopez said.
For Danielsen, he says without reimbursement, the damage to his business is already done.
"We're just trying to survive like anybody else," Danielsen said.
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