Power companies: Lights should be back on soon
TAMPA (FOX 13) - Slowly but surely, the power is coming back on for thousands of Bay Area residents left in the dark by Tropical Storm Colin. Both Duke Energy and Tampa Electric say most -- if not all -- outages will be repaired by the end of the day.
Just before 4 p.m., Duke reported 3,539 customers without power in Pinellas County. An outage map on TECO's website showed 1,258 customers in Tampa and Hillsborough County were without power.
The largest outage appeared to be in Plant City. TECO is still investigating the exact cause by says power should be restored by 6:45 p.m. Tuesday.
Both companies say the majority of power outages are from tree limbs falling onto power lines. They warn customers to avoid damaged, saggy, or downed power lines, and to report any power line problems to authorities as soon as possible.
Even through the stormy weather, both power utilities have been working around the clock to restore electricity. A Duke spokesperson says the company relocated a number of crews from other areas to Pinellas County to help restore power. TECO says it brought in more than 100 out-of-state utility workers to help local crews restore power -- and it seems to be working.
TECO says nearly 39,000 customers lost power at one point during the storm. Duke says 85,000 of its customers went without power on Monday or Tuesday.
Both companies expect most of the outages to be repaired by 7 p.m. Tuesday.
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