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Lightning knocks out power to 1,800 homes

Times Staff Writer
Published June 26, 2004

Lightning knocked out power for about 1,800 residents of Land O'Lakes and Wesley Chapel for nearly two hours Thursday night.

A severe thunderstorm that passed through the central Pasco County communities about 8 p.m. sent bolts into two Withlacoochee River Electric Cooperative distribution lines.

A downed wire near State Roads 54 and 56 cut power about 7:52 p.m. to 829 customers in and near the Lake Padgett Estates East neighborhood in Land O'Lakes. Crews restored electricity about 9:40 p.m.

A second lightning strike severed a line running from a substation near State Road 52 and Bellamy Brothers Boulevard.

About 945 customers in the Quail Hollow section of Wesley Chapel were without power from about 8:18 p.m. to 9:48 p.m.

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