Residents simmer in wake of Irma
Frustration grows as many wait for power
Most Floridians can handle a day or two without electricity which means no AC, hot showers or cold drinks, but Central Florida residents without power since Hurricane Irma hit are as hot as their homes.
“You cannot stay inside because you cannot breathe — it’s too hot,” said Hazel Hollis, 58, sweating in a tank top and jean shorts under a shade tree at her South Apopka home on Friday. She and her Celeste Street neighbor, Mary Beckett, 80, lost power Sunday. They said they can’t watch TV or surf the internet in their cinder-block homes that feel like ovens. Beckett said she gets up at night and wanders outside hoping for a breeze and cooler air. “We’re dying here,” she said. About 196,000 electric customers were still without power Friday evening across a region spanning Brevard, Lake, Orange, Osceola, Seminole and Volusia counties, according to floridadisaster.org.
That’s about 11 percent of electric accounts.
Some are venting on Twitter.
The Original Jo_1, who said in a tweet that she resides in Tangelo Park near Orlando’s tourist district, posted a photo of her house thermostat at 90 degrees. She then tweeted at Duke to ask why Gatorland got power back before she and her neighbors did.
A few insulted the company.
The utility company celebrated the restoration of power to 1 million Florida customers on its Twitter account but also vowed “we won’t stop until you’re all back on.”
Duke’s Florida president, Harry Sideris, asked for patience and ended several of his tweets with #thankalineman.
About 69,000 Duke customers in the six-county region were without power Friday evening. The company estimated all power would be restored by midnight Sunday.
In unplugged English Estates in Maitland, some residents who have generators are suffering less than neighbors who don’t.
The gas-powered generators can run a refrigerator, a freezer and TVs but, oh, the noise.
“It sounds like someone’s out constantly mowing the lawn,” said Marci Anderson, who runs her family’s generator to keep a 6-month-old baby comfortable.
Paul Mauceri, who resides near Cypress Grove Park south of Orlando, admitted to “feeling major electricity envy” in a tweet that ended with “#DUKEENERGYIRMAFAILURE.” He said his neighbors have power, but he doesn’t.
Another Twitter user tweaked the power company’s slow progress in restoring electricity. The tweet read, “Pretty sure I will find bigfoot before I spot a @DukeEnergy truck.”
Tony Galarza, whose wife is pregnant, appealed to Duke to restore power at his home in Oviedo with a message spray-painted on a plywood board.
“Power still out! Wife pregnant! Fix today and will name baby Duke!”
Luckily, Galarza said, he and his wife, Holly, know they’re having a boy. The delivery date is in November.
“I know they’re working their butts off [at Duke] and I know there are people who are way worse off than us,” said Galarza, 37, whose wife and their other two children, ages 9 and 5, are staying with friends with electricity. “But six days without power got me delirious. I had to do something.”
Lori Heers, 37, whose husband, Jasper, is a power lineman, urged people to be patient and appreciate power workers. She spray-painted “prayers 4 line workers” and “#Irma Sucks” on the plywood boards covering the front windows of her home north of Apopka, where some neighborhoods have power and others don’t.
“What they do is extremely dangerous every single day,” Heers said, holding year-old Jett, the youngest of her four children. “Just like police officers, they put their lives at risk and they’re away from their families. I mean they’ll be away from us most of the next month because the storm did a lot of damage.”
She said her husband, 31, comes home only to sleep after his 16-hour days.
Some local governments have tried to ease the pain for the powerless.
Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer, Police Chief John Mina and Fire Chief Roderick Williams flipped burgers for frustrated citizens in Gilbert McQueen Park west of Camping World Stadium and at the Englewood Neighborhood Center in east Orlando. Both neighborhoods are without electricity.
Lake County set up a “comfort station” in the hard hit rural area of Astor near the St. Johns River. The station includes portable toilets and a hand-washing station for residents whose water wells won’t run without power.
AT&T also set up a charging station for mobile phones at the First Baptist Church of Astor. The generator-powered station has outlets for 30 mobile phones, which are the only lifelines for some residents.
Gayle Blanton, 81, said the ongoing power outage magnifies little annoyances — from the way someone might shuffle a deck of cards to her habit of saying “Huh?”
“I don’t hear so well,” she explained.
But Blanton, who lives in Palm Valley, a neighborhood near UCF that was powerless for five days, also has seen warm hearts in the hot times.
Neighborhood Church, a small congregation near the mobile-home park, brought food and cold water to Palm Valley’s 120 households for three days.
“It’s really nice to know that people really care,” she said.
Power finally popped back on in the park Friday morning, an occurrence she called “praise-worthy” — and just in time.
She feared she had worn out her welcome at her son’s home near Curry Ford Road. shudak@ orlandosentinel.com or 407-650-6361