Still in the dark

In spite of promises to have all South Floridians power restored already three weeks after Wilma, there are still people out there powerless.

I sympathize with these people. Seven days after Hurricane Wilma struck Palm Beach county we got our power back. For a little over four hours and then lost it again! It was over five more days till power was again restored. Those were the most annoying days of our time spent without power because of the 180 or so homes in our development, only 20-25 of us were powerless. You go across the street I live on and your neighbors have electric. You would find it frustrating too.

Open Post- Bright and Early, Don Surber,

Marie Curreri prayed for power on Sunday, two days after all of South Florida was to be restored -- and after three weeks of living without lights, phone or water.

But for most of the day, she stayed in the dark in her Fort Lauderdale mobile home, still at the mercy of sympathetic neighbors for food, water and ice.

"I'm a [severe] diabetic on insulin that needs to be refrigerated," said Curreri, 73, a widow who lives alone. "I cannot go another day without power."

Then, at 3 p.m. Sunday, a Florida Power & Light Co. crew arrived at her home and lit up the place -- after the South Florida Sun-Sentinel notified the company of her plight.

Curreri rejoiced, saying she planned to take a hot shower once her water heated up.

"You know it, and I'll put on my air," she said.

Curreri lives in the Estates of Fort Lauderdale, a mobile home park west of Interstate 95 and south of Stirling Road. Until the power came back, she had called FPL repeatedly from her park's clubhouse phone.

"I got the same junk: `We'll report it and have a truck out there,'" she said.

Others still are waiting.In the aftermath of Hurricane Wilma, FPL spokesman Tom Veenstra said Sunday, an unknown number of homes remain powerless, despite the company's goal to have more than 3 million customers restored by Friday.

He said certain homes are isolated, even though they are in neighborhoods where all the power has been restored.

"Our system tells us that everybody is back in who was out," he said. "But the system only goes to the neighborhood level. It doesn't tell us that a single home still might be out."Most of those are in Broward, which took the brunt of the storm, Veenstra said."If anyone is still out, we're asking them to call us so we make sure not to leave anybody behind," he said.