Crews working to restore power after Debby caused widespread outages

CLEARWATER, Fla. - Hurricane Debby left more than 120,000 Pinellas County homes without power. As of Monday night, Duke Energy, the county's sole energy provider for its residents, reported less than 4,000 remaining outages.

The power company said most will be restored by early Tuesday morning. Duke Energy brought in more than 3,000 crews from across the country in anticipation of Debby. Hundreds are staged at Tropicana Field and in Clearwater.

Duke Energy spokesperson Ana Gibbs said the first reported outage from Debby in Pinellas was as early as 6 a.m. Sunday.

"As soon as it was safe to do, all of those hundreds of trucks deployed into the hardest hit areas and, of course, began restoring power," Gibbs said.

The challenge this time around was the disorganized nature of this system.

"Not only did we restore the original impact but because those bands continued, we were able to just pause when needed," she said.

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Crews could return to a job once wind speeds were under 40 mph.

Because the system was so scattered, outages were widespread, but more concentrated in Seminole, Clearwater and St. Pete. Angel Palmetto and her family on Ridge Road in Seminole lost power Sunday night.

"We heard some heavy winds and stuff like that. Lost power around 8:30 [p.m.]. It was out all night, which we pretty much expected," Palmetto said.

They've learned to adjust to the outage.

"We actually just got back from vacation so we have everything on ice right now. We’re charging stuff as we can. We went out for dinner, came back and just charging stuff. If we get too hot, we get in the car," she said.

But they hope it will turn back on sooner than later.

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Duke Energy advises residents without power to double-check that their breaker is on, then give them a call.

"We have the ability to directly communicate with those customers, so those customers are signed up for outage alerts, they will get either a phone call or a text letting them know when their specific home will have power," Gibbs said.

For more information on Duke Energy's outage map, click here.

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