PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. (WFLA) – Duke Energy is reporting most Irma-related outages in Pinellas County are restored.
A Clearwater family would argue that’s not entirely the case.
It’s a familiar site across the Tampa Bay area. Irma’s powerful winds pushed a tall tree onto John Hoback’s power lines. He and his family had evacuated to a hotel in Melbourne.
When they returned, they found their home super-energized.
“All the lights popped. When we came in, we ran around flicking lights on and we noticed that some of the lights seemed to get very bright and then they just started to pop,” said Hoback.
The trouble appears to be a broken line, one of three, attached to a power pole behind Hoback’s house.
Popping lights are only part of the problem.
“We went running to the bedroom and this had begun, very preliminary, to melt. So we pulled this off the wall,” Hoback said, pointing to a partially melted multi-plug.
Hoback’s son tried to use a hair dryer.
“And when he plugged it in, the best thing to do is to, smell this, you can smell how its, there was fire, something inside, it was not working,” he said.
The family has air conditioning, but nothing else.
Duke Energy Florida President Harry Sideris tells News Channel 8, of the 35 counties impacted by the storm, 21 percent are 99 percent restored.
“There’s still isolated and scattered outages that we’ll be addressing. We still have crews working in all those counties that are greater than 99 percent complete, tying up those lose ends and we won’t stop ’til everybody is back on,” said Sideris.
Nine days after the storm hit, John Hoback sure hopes so.
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