About 30,000 LCEC customers remain without power 12 days after Hurricane Ian
Image via LCEC Twitter.

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Those relying on the Lee County-based utility remain the only ones with no electricity.

Almost 30,000 remain without power statewide 12 days after Hurricane Ian made landfall. All subscribe to Lee County Electric Cooperative (LCEC), and the vast majority live in Lee County, where washed-out bridges still leave utility vehicles unable to reach some areas.

A total of 27,500 Lee County customers still have service out, according to a Public Service Commission report published at 6 a.m. on Monday, Oct. 10. Another 2,140 in Collier County, to the immediate south of Lee, also remain in the dark. Another 22 LCEC customers in Charlotte County, to Lee County’s north, have not had power restored. Finally, two of the 56 LCEC customers in Broward County have no electricity.

In many senses, it’s a success story that less than two weeks after Florida’s deadliest storm in a century made landfall on Sept. 28, most power has been restored. At the peak of reported outages, at noon on Sept. 29, almost 2.7 million had no electricity.

It’s no surprise the last lingering blackout zone remains in Southwest Florida. The hurricane landed as a Category 4 storm in Cayo Costa, delivering 150 mph winds at the time. That largely destroyed much of LCEC’s infrastructure.

The storm impacted numerous other power grids, including Florida Power & Light (FPL), Duke Energy, the Tampa Electric Cooperative and numerous small cooperatives and municipal power providers.

FPL, the state’s largest electrical utility provider, reported 100% restoration on Sunday, Oct. 9, while Duke and TECO reached that point last Tuesday, Oct. 4. Smaller providers have moved at various rates depending on impacts of the storm — nearly all of Hardee County had no power for days as Peace River Electric Cooperative (PREC) reported a 99.7% outage in the county days after the storm.

But since 3 p.m. on Sunday, when PREC reported its last 26 customers had electricity, and the Glades Electric Cooperative brought its last 17 users back online, LCEC remains the only power provider still impacted.

Of note, FPL stressed some customers may have had power receiver equipment at their homes destroyed which may require individual repairs. Financial support is available to assist homeowners who still do not have electricity because of needed repairs to their own properties.

Those still without power include 7,398 on Pine Island and 10,946 on Sanibel. Both islands had the only bridges providing land access destroyed by the storm. While a temporary gravel bridge has reconnected Pine Island to the mainland, LCEC still is not providing estimates on when it can be restored. Trucks still cannot access Sanibel, where a causeway to the barrier island is severed in three places.

Jacob Ogles

Jacob Ogles has covered politics in Florida since 2000 for regional outlets including SRQ Magazine in Sarasota, The News-Press in Fort Myers and The Daily Commercial in Leesburg. His work has appeared nationally in The Advocate, Wired and other publications. Events like SRQ’s Where The Votes Are workshops made Ogles one of Southwest Florida’s most respected political analysts, and outlets like WWSB ABC 7 and WSRQ Sarasota have featured his insights. He can be reached at [email protected].


3 comments

  • Paul Passarelli

    October 10, 2022 at 9:20 am

    What is the point of this story? The people without power know that are still in the dark. The utility companies have restored main service to the rest of the population, the remaining outages are akin to what the area was like >150 years ago before the advent of electric power.

    Since this is virtually a carbon copy of stories published last week, I suspect that it;s purpose is to embarrass the governor, and nothing more. This rag is so far left, it’s unlikely that there was any other motivation.

    Now let’s see if my Soros Troll fake alias stalkers pick this up.

    • W Bowe

      October 10, 2022 at 5:05 pm

      What an asinine comment. Of course, many here in Florida are looking at the stats. Sorry that you’re such a chump.

      • Paul Passarelli

        October 10, 2022 at 8:27 pm

        @W Bowe, which Soros Troll are you? Is this a new fake alias?

        Why would you call me a chump? I was plain spoken as to why I posted the comment.

Comments are closed.


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