While crews work to restore power, many county residents are suffering. The stress and uncertainity are taking an emotional toll.
By BRIDGET HALL GRUMET
Published September 10, 2004
The United Way's help line has been ringing nearly nonstop since Frances blew through Pasco County.
Hundreds of people on tight budgets need food after their groceries spoiled during the power outages. Dozens of elderly or disabled residents need help clearing the tree branches and other storm debris from their yards.
Others are simply calling because "they are stressed to the max," said Bobbie Turner, director of the help line, which provides referrals to various agencies and charities.
"Those who have been staying in the shelters are stressed - there's no other way to put it," Turner said. "And now we're looking at sending them back there (if Hurricane Ivan comes this way). It's not a good thing."
All told, calls to the help line have nearly doubled to 80 or 100 a day since the storm - another indicator of Frances' toll on Pasco County.
As of 5 p.m. Thursday, about 5,866 homes and businesses in Pasco County still lacked power, down from roughly 52,000 on Sunday. That figure includes 4,000 customers of Withlacoochee River Electric Cooperative, 1,500 TECO customers and 366 Progress Energy customers.
The companies started by restoring the major electricity supply lines first.
"We're now in the process of restoring services one small tap at a time, one tree at a time, rebuilding one segment of line at a time," said Ernie Holzhauer, spokesman for Withlacoochee River Electric. "Our employees and other emergency and support personnel are working 14 to 16 hours a day, and turning around and coming in the next morning at first light."
Other crews continued to assess the county's damage. The latest figures showed 511 homes and businesses with minor damage and 165 others with moderate to major damage - and that only reflected inspections in about 55 percent of the county, including Zephyrhills and Dade City.
Residents throughout the county continued to line up for assistance.
By Wednesday evening, the Salvation Army had served 360 hot meals in Lacoochee, 150 in Zephyrhills and 65 in Hudson to residents who still didn't have power.
Lake Jovita served 900 box lunches to Withlacoochee Electric linemen.
Emergency aid poured into Pasco County in the form of 2,880 ready-to-eat meals, 35 pallets of ice, 27 pallets of water and three pallets of baby food.
Pasco businesses still are taking stock of their losses from the storm.
"We drove to all the industrial parks and the office parks" on Tuesday, said John Walsh with Pasco's Economic Development Council. "We saw pretty minor damage. Some flooding. I don't know how many had power outages."
Among those who called in with problems was a bait shop in Hudson that lost its product when the freezers thawed thanks to no electricity.
A roller skating rink in Port Richey closed after sustaining flood damage and numerous businesses across the county lost signage in the storm.
"After 26 years of being down here, I can't believe all of this is happening at once," Walsh said. "I've got hurricane fatigue."
- Staff writer Melia Bowie contributed to this report. Bridget Hall Grumet covers Pasco County government. She can be reached in west Pasco at 869-6244 or toll-free at 1-800-333-7505, ext. 6244. Her e-mail address is bhall@sptimes.com
