FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. (WSVN) - Florida Power & Light says almost 5,000 customers in South Florida are currently without power.
As of 5 a.m. on Friday, 3,050 people in Miami-Dade County are without electricity, and 1,297 in Broward are in the same situation.
FPL says these numbers reflect outages that are considered to have happened after Irma, and that the numbers on the company’s website, which show almost no one still without power, reflect only customers who lost power during the storm.
There has been some confusion about the numbers. FPL officials said there are 10 outages in Miami-Dade and zero in Broward Counties due to the storm. Some have lost power for other reasons since the storm has been over.
“Had to throw everything away in the refrigerator here. I lost all the food,” said Broward resident Jose Carvalho.
Thursday marks another dark night for Carvalho. The lights went out in his Fort Lauderdale home Sunday, Sept. 10, during Hurricane Irma. While his neighbors return to their normal lives, Carvalho continues to have power problems.
“The little cable’s not hooked up to the transformer,” he said.
The little cable is causing a big headache for the homeowner. He said he’s trying to be patient, but he just wants to know when it will get fixed.
“I think FPL is doing a great job helping a lot of families, but we waited for one, two, three, four [days] — a week,” said Carvalho. “I realized last week that all my neighbors got their power back except me.”
Over in Lauderhill, Felix Singletarry has asked similar questions. He said FPL has been to his home six times, but he remains in the dark.
“I could understand if it was the whole area, but the house to the right, house to the left, everybody’s on. It’s just this,” he said gesturing to his own home.
Earlier in the day, FPL trucks and thousands of utility workers took to the streets of South Florida.
First the power provider had promised that all issues would be resolved by Sunday, then Tuesday night, but some are still sitting in the dark two days later.
One woman’s house was affected by a tree branch that fell on her Fort Lauderdale home, which knocked out the main line that goes into the house. Many other residents are dealing with a similar issues.
Eighty-two-year-old Elizabeth Brown was out of power for over a week because of it. She said she runs a small church in the living room of her home, but she’s thankful that on Thursday, she got power back.
“I feel as though it should have been taken care of, because I spoke to one FPL employee on Saturday,” said Brown. “I said, ‘Don’t forget. I’m the only person on this side that has no light.’ He said, ‘Oh yeah, I know.’ And we’ve been calling every day, every day. And they kept saying we have power, and there’s no power.”
In Hollywood, there were a few houses on Coolidge Street that are still without power Thursday.
On Moffett Street not far away, crews could be seen checking on a few people to get back online.
And a small apartment in Fort Lauderdale is one of the last neighborhoods still in the dark.
Work is also underway in a Miami Gardens neighborhood, but for some, the ordeal has been too frustrating and a class action lawsuit has been filed.
For Brown, she said she was about to leave and stay with a friend when her power went on. “I’m so grateful!” she said. “And I just thank God that I can rest again.”
Meanwhile, Carvalho is hoping for a blessing of his own.
“I decided to leave the following day because my wife and my kids. They cannot stay inside,” he said.
His wife and 1-and-a-half-year-old are staying at his brother’s house and said they’ll return once the power comes back. “How long do I have to wait?” he said.
FPL claims that they have restored power to everyone who lost power due to Hurricane Irma.
7News spoke with one crew from Texas who said they have been working 12-hour shifts for 22 days, so they are tired, but are working as hard as they can.
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