CHARLOTTE, N.C.-- Thousands of homes and businesses in southwest Charlotte are without natural gas for a second day. Piedmont Natural Gas said that as many as 7,000 customers were affected from an area stretching from Westinghouse Blvd. to Lake Wylie. About 200 technicians – some brought in from as far away as Tennessee – gathered at a command post early Saturday morning to begin the process of restoring service.

"This type of event is pretty rare for us," said David Trusty, spokesperson for Piedmont Natural Gas.  "We know this is an inconvenience to our customers."

Trusty said that crews were doing routine maintenance on Thursday when they mistakenly left a valve closed.

Shortly after, the company began receiving calls from customers that their gas was not working.

Art Mateo, an affected customer who lives in the Palisades near Lake Wylie, said the timing of the outage could not be worse.

"Long weekend, everyone's home for three days and not having hot water," said Mateo.  “It makes you appreciate all the necessities you have."

Crews were able to turn off gas meters on Friday.

However, the task of turning on gas to customers will be a longer process.

The customer is required to be at the home or business for crews to turn the gas back on.

"We may be there for just a few minutes,” said Trusty.  “In other cases, it may stretch into 30-45 minutes.”

Piedmont Natural Gas hopes to have all gas restored by the end of the weekend.

Piedmont will provide hourly updates on restoration at www.piedmontng.com.