Power resorted to all but 19 percent homes
As of Sunday morning 174,450 LCEC customers have had power restored.
“Many more will be restored by September 19,” the co-op said in a release.
Crews will continue to work in all parts of the five-county LCEC service territory Sunday, officials said.
Although no customers in storm-ravaged Everglades City and surrounding areas have been restored yet, progress was made in rebuilding a large section of the critical infrastructure that feeds power to businesses and residents there.
“Nearly half of the customers in the hard-hit area of Lehigh Acres have been restored and there is much more work that needs to be completed before the main circuit feeders for neighborhoods can bring power to residents,” the release said. “Damage to the system serving individual neighborhoods is extensive and will take time as well. As work is completed on the main infrastructure today, LCEC will have a better estimate of the time frame most customers there will have power.”
Just over one third of customers in Immokalee were restored Saturday and overnight.
“Crews continue to work in the area and bring more and more of the businesses back online so they can assist customers there, many of who lost everything,” LCEC officials said.
“Most customers in other areas less-impacted by Hurricane Irma, such as Cape Coral, Marco Island, Pine Island, Sanibel/Captiva, North Fort Myers, and surrounding areas will have power restored by September 19. As crews make gains in repairing the main power arteries that deliver power to the lines that serve residents, more and more work can be done on the remaining smaller pockets that need repair work in order to restore. Those are the jobs that will result in restoring power to a few customers at a time.
“The LCEC restoration team is committed to working as quickly and as safely so that all customers have power as soon as possible.”
Source: LCEC