After Irma, power restored to all of Manatee, Sarasota, FPL says

The long awaited day has arrived.

All power customers in Manatee and Sarasota counties have had power restored since Hurricane Irma knocked out service to thousands when she struck Florida.

A Florida Power and Light Power Tracker outage map showed Friday morning that there were zero customers experiencing an outage in Manatee and Sarasota counties.

Crews with FPL and other power cooperatives like Peace River Electric Cooperative, have been working since the storm cleared to restore power to thousands of customers in the two counties.

Thousands of linemen came from companies across the country and Canada to aid in the efforts to restore power.

But some county residents are still dealing with power and electrical issues.

Manatee County resident Shirley Wilson said she and her husband survived Irma in their home in the 1900 block of 27th Avenue Drive East, but are still living without lights.

“It wasn’t Irma that caused the outage,” Wilson said.

Wilson blames nearby power lines for starting a fire to their home on Sept. 11.

Her husband, Randy, had called her to the door that day because he thought someone was cooking nearby. But it was their home that was going up in smoke, she said.

Randy was able to turn off the home’s main breaker and they called the fire department, Wilson said. The house, she added, will need some repairs.

“It caused a mess outside,” Wilson said, referring to some siding that had to be torn off after the fire.

Wilson said the fire department determined the blaze was caused by a cable line, but the cable company blamed a power line that had fallen across the cable wire that traveled into her home.

The Wilsons have managed to get by thanks to friends allowing them to store food in their freezers and staying at Randy’s mother’s home.

FPL, Wilson said, stopped by her home but eventually told her she would need to hire an electrician to fix issues with her home and wires. Wilson said she did that, and it cost her hundreds of dollars. Now, she’s waiting for an inspector to come out and then contact FPL so they can be fully restored.

More than 1,000 customers across the state are still waiting for power too. As of 9:20 a.m. Friday, there were still 960 customers in Collier County and 560 customers in Lee County without power. Glades and Hardee counties each had fewer than 50 customers without power.

This story was originally published September 22, 2017 at 9:49 AM with the headline "After Irma, power restored to all of Manatee, Sarasota, FPL says."