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1,300 Without Power For Hours
December 29, 2009
Almost 1,300 Gulf Power customers were without power for about five hours overnight in the Cantonment area.
The power failure for 1,289 customers occurred at 9:02 p.m. Monday when line pulled out of a switch near Muscogee Road and Louis Street, according to Sandy Sims, Gulf Power manager of public affairs. Power was restored at 2:15 a.m. Tuesday. The outage was attributed to wind.
“We realize that being without power for a period is a major inconvenience, especially on a cold night like last night,” Sims said. “We brought in crews to repair the outage as quickly as possible.”
Comments
22 Responses to “1,300 Without Power For Hours”
You sound like a bunch of GATOR ( TIM “TEAR”BO) FANS
Just be thank-ful you have electricity!!!
Are people not allowed to complain anymore?
I have property in other areas and Gulf Power sure beats some other companies. Try getting trees limbs removed from over your line is impossible in some areas. Duke power will not remove a limb that is between the transformer and the house. They will send out a crew—turn off the power—you pay some one to cut the limbs—they send out a crew again to return power. You are charged for two service calls by Duke. If you want to be sure of having power all the time get a back up system. True the cost is high, but with our history of storms it’s money well spent.
Wow everyone is really jumping on David. I agree he sounds angry. He does have a point though. I used to live in Nashville and whenever there would be a line break or some other sort of problem we would hear on the news that Nashville Electric had rerouted the power to bring it back on. Our power would never be out for more than a few minutes. Maybe a half hour at most. I wonder why they can’t do that here?
I too remember gulf power during Ivan.
I didn’t have power for almost 3 weeks, but when they did get to us,
I was just grateful.
I watched gulf power day after day after day after day out there
busting their rears to get us all service.
You can say they get paid for it, and they do.
But have you ever worked that many hours till your dead tired, with
ppl coming up to you and bothering you asking the same tired
questions. WHEN am I going to get electricity?
I also watched a gulf power truck lose their soda cooler off the back
of their truck and before they could get it picked up pick up pick up trucks came
and ran over them, instead of stopping to help them pick it up like
my daughter and I. So my daughter and I went and bought a bunch
of ice and soda of all kinds and took it to them. We found them
at webbs diner and gave it to them.
I think everyone should be a little more grateful to these guys who go
out everyday and risk their life in horrible weather to do their job.
Most ppl’s jobs are not this hard……
Just my opinion
I had Gulf Power for about 19 years, and have had EREC for about 15. I choose EREC, even though I, too, hate the power surges. That is bad. I want to say that the people I have dealt with at EREC are some of the nicest, most caring folks, I have ever dealt with. When my husband was dying, and on oxygen from an electric unit that make its own oxygen, they knew his situation, and made sure we were back on ASAP! After he had died( I think I had told someone there, but do not remember for sure), there was a power outage, and my phone was ringing in just minutes. It was EREC assuring me they would have my power on in short order. I made sure they all knew they didn’t need to give this residence priorty any more. I have also received several checks from EREC, since it is a co-op. I never got money back from Gulf Power. I am not criticizing Gulf Power. It’s just that EREC has been so nice, that they outshine any power company I have ever had. AND, after Ivan, their local workers and those from elsewhere did their very best from what I could tell. I heard one evening that a worker near my house was really on edge (they had been working for hours, but trees would fall on their work almost as soon as they would fix a line). I got in my truck and drove to where they were. One of the workers started towards my truck, looking like he was going to “tell” me…….whatever! I asked him if I could bring them anything to eat or drink, and thanked them for working so very hard under such frustrating circumstances. He almost cried. We are all human beings, and it seems that most folks think no one else’s job is as hard as their own. Can’t we just TRY to understand and help one another, instead of being angry and defensive about things that don’t go our way? Some folks have a short fuse. One time I told my pastor that one of my family members had a short fuse, and he said, “A short fuse is better than no fuse.” How long is your fuse, David? Just wondering.
Crybabies!
Get a life, a blanket, a generator, natural gas, propane heat, suggle up with your mate. Meanwhile be thankful that a few lineman was out in the cold, dark night playing around with a 75,000 volt line trying to get you power. That is just the way I see it. I have EREC and they have their faults and the service is sometimes so so, but I have a backup plan. There are 8760 hours in a year and your are without power for less than 10. WOW! What do they have to do???
Gulf Power is in the buisiness of selling power, restoring service is their first priority. They can’t make money if the meters are not turning. So if it were fesable to install equipment to reroute power, I am sure that it would be top priority as well. Just my opinion, I don’t want to ruffle any feathers.
Another classic case of people being ungrateful for what they do have or get. You should be happy that you even have electricity. In a 3rd world country, most people do not have power. Get over it and be thankful for what you do have.
I wish I had Gulf Power but I don’t. I have EREC. When the person a few doors down from me has Gulf Power and thier lights are on and mine are not I sure wish I had them. I would love to be on Gulf Power – that would mean no more power surges at all times of the day, my power not going off for an hour or two every week or so, and I would have power 2 to 3 days earlier after a hurricane! Plus, due to all of the surges I would still have my last computer, scanner and printer, an alarm clock, 2 tv’s and on and on. Those surges sure do damage! So, like I said – I WISH I HAD GULF POWER! ( I guess we all have a case of we all want what we don’t have! LOL) Hope everyone has a nice warm electricfied evening!
I have electricity with another power company , but to save on my power bill, I choose to sleep without my heater running all night.
I remember when I was growing up we didn’t know what it was to have heat all the time , but we made it just fine.
Sure, we are all spoiled to flipping a switch , pushing a button and expect everything to be “microwave” speed these days , but do we really understand what it takes to head up a power company and what ” all” the employees do so we can be comfortable ” all the time” ? I think not.
So maybe less criticism and a lot more understanding and gratitude on the part of people who get soooo upset about everything would be most helpful to all who read this great website.
I don’t know who came up with 2:15 a.m. of having the power restored, but I am hear to tell you that mine did not come on until after 7:00 a.m. this morning. We were without power for quite some time but do appreciate Gulf Power working throughout the night in order to get it restored. Thank you!
To: I Was Cold
The workers were great and they did their best with what the management at Gulf Power gave them to work with. My beef is not with the workers who did their best out in the cold.
My problem is with the top management who will not reinvest in our community to improve their level of service. The repairmen are just workers. They have no control. But the management knows how to fix the problem and they won’t. In doing so they are thumbing their noses at their own customers – you and I. But I’m not so sure about you. If you were so snug and worm under your electric blanket, then you must have had electricity when I did not.
Boy David sure gets upset. My power was off at 9 and back on when I got up at 6. I don’t know what time it came back on…
Our heat is electric. I was cold. My food was cold. The batteries were about dead in my flashlight. I could not find matches for the candles.
But you know what? I’m thankful somebody was out in the cold up on a pole fixing it as fast as they could. I’m a big girl, and I can handle it. I was asleep…snuggled under a big ole pile of electric blankets.
Deal with it.
To: sick of politics,
My problem with Gulf Power is that they should be providing us with better than a 3rd world level of service. It is much better in other communities in Florida. If that cable had pulled out from a switch in the service area of another Florida power company, they would have opened a switch on the next block and then rerouted power back from the other direction. Then only one block would be without power during the repair. Gulf Power just leaves the entire length of line dead and 1200 (with the fibbing I’m sure it was more) homes go dark. Other areas of the state don’t have to put up with that crappy 3rd world level of service and we should not have to ether.
File a complaint at http://www.psc.state.fl.us/consumers/complaints/
The Gulf Power men/women work very hard to get power back on in all sorts of weather…and they have a dangerous job as well…does David have a beef with Gulf Power or is he even on their service. There are times that they can’t go out to work due to the weather and have to go when it clears somewhat…would you want to have one of your loved ones out there working in the situations they work in??? All the utilities leave a lot to be desired…it could be much worse.
Yes, there is some fibbing going on. Our power went out at 9pm. We called and they said it had been reported. I called again at 3:30am and was told they “hoped to have it back by 7am”. It finally came back on at 6am. That is WAY MORE than 5 hours. I am VERY THANKFUL for the workers getting out in the cold to fix it, but I think Gulf Power should fess up when they are wrong.
Those guys get paid to work in the freezing cold. That’s their job. My job requires me to do things I don’t like, but that is the job I have and I do what it takes.
As for Gulf Power, they provide the poorest quality of service I have ever experienced from a power company. There is no excuse for the power to have been off for so long. If they weren’t so greedy they would design their system so that they could reroute power around the break, but not Gulf power, they just leave us in the dark. Other power companies reroute power and that is how they avoid these long outages.
And Barry is right about the fibbing. My power came on at 2:15, but went right off again in about 2 minutes. It did not come back on until 5:00AM. Bringing the power on for two minutes and then cutting it right back off does not stop the clock on the power outage.
Everyone reading this blog who experienced the outage should file a formal written complaint with the Florida PSC. Gulf power could install equipment that would alleviate these outages, but they won’t until the public demands it.
Formal complaints can be filed at http://www.psc.state.fl.us/consumers/complaints/
Oh, I was very greatful. That’s why I stated in my last sentence, ” It’s back on now and I thank the linemen that worked all night, in below freezing temperatures, to get powered restored.”
Have a nice day.
Hey Barry get a life it did not say “people” affected it said “customers” do you really want some compan;y coming in and counting your family members!
Can’t some people just be grateful that these guys got out there in the FREEZING COLD to repair the power to keep YOU AT HOME WARM? I mean come on here now. They worked hard.
I think there is a little fibbing going on. We live in the area affected and we didn’t get our power back on until 6 a.m. Also, there may have been 1289 customers affected but there were many more people affected. Surely the average household has more than one person living in it. I guess Gulf Power doesn’t need negative PR.
At any rate, it’s back on now and I thank the linemen that worked all night, in below freezing temperatures, to get powered restored.