SURFSIDE, FLA. (WSVN) - Residents who live in two Surfside apartment buildings have had the power restored to their units, but they spent the past day and a half without electricity, causing concern for the elderly in the area.
Power initially went out before lunchtime on Tuesday for those who live at 9124 and 9140 Collins Avenue. Florida Power & Light crews have since restored electricity to the two buildings.
An FPL spokesperson released a statement on the incident, which reads: “We are aware of a service interruption at 9124 Collins Avenue in Surfside and apologize for the inconvenience this created for our customers. Contractors who were working on a new building in the area accidentally hit one of our transformers, which caused the outage. Our crews were on-site and worked safely and as quickly as possible. At this time, power has been restored.”
Earlier Wednesday night, residents expressed their frustration at the lack of electricity inside of their units.
“No air conditioning, nothing,” resident Gloria Diaz said. “Yeah, it’s a big problem.”
“All the time, they say, ‘An hour, an hour, an hour,’ and look at the time it is,” resident Marcela Mur said. “We’re still without. Florida Power & Light says the light is going to come back at 3:45. After 3:45, I received another email saying it’s going to be 6:15, and all the time I called, they were giving us different stories.”
At least 10 FPL trucks worked through the night to get the power restored to the affected units.
In the meantime, those like Odin Bujeiro, who works from home, have been inconvenienced.
“It is inconvenient. Something that affects your business,” Bujeiro said.
Others also expressed concern for their elderly neighbors.
“My concern is that we have a neighbor that she’s 91,” Mur said. “She’s living by herself.”
“We’ve been contacting this woman. This is a woman who is very old,” Bujeiro said.
Dozens of crew members were on scene with their trucks, and they shut down the right lane of Collins Avenue while they worked to restore the power.
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