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ABBIE VANSICKLE and JUSTIN GEORGEProgress Energy says it is working fast and furious to restore power to Citrus residents, but county officials aren't convinced.
Days after Frances swept through Citrus County, thousands of residents remain without power.
Some homes' electricity may not be restored until Sunday night, energy officials said Thursday.
"This area probably got impacted more than any," Bill Habermeyer, chief executive officer of Progress Energy Florida, told county officials Thursday at a briefing. Habermeyer spoke to more than 40 people crammed into the county's Emergency Operations Center, assuring them that crews will continue to restore power as quickly as possible.
"Rest assured that we're not going to simply stop," he said.
Many county officials weren't calmed by Habermeyer's words. They want power back, they said repeatedly, and they want it now. They accused the utility of not heeding the county's priority list for power restoration.
"I don't know if they're being put in a drawer somewhere, but they're not being looked into," said public works director Ken Frink.
Citrus Memorial Hospital, the county's largest, was without power until Wednesday.
"That completely floors me," Frink said.
As of Thursday afternoon, Progress Energy Corp. reported 18,497 of its 41,145 customers without power; Sumter Electric Cooperative reported 1,084 of its 14,000 Citrus customers without power; and Withlacoochee Regional Electric Cooperative reported 800 of its 22,377 customers without power.
"People are extremely frustrated," Frink said after the briefing.
Frink questioned Habermeyer several times during the briefing, stressing his concern that energy officials did not heed the county's priorities when restoring power.
Frink said he's troubled by the number of sewer lift stations still inoperable. The stations were a high priority, he said. Of the more than 30 stations without power after the storm, 17 still had no power Wednesday. Ten were not restored by Thursday afternoon.
He asked why power lines wrapped around fallen trees have not been removed. Until then, trees cannot be cleared from streets, he said.
Of 48 streets blocked by power line-wrapped trees after the storm, Frink said, the utility has removed lines from only 26. He also wondered why power restoration for stoplights has been so slow. Four lights remained down Thursday afternoon.
Habermeyer said the utility showed no favoritism to certain areas of the state in restoring power and took local needs into account.
"I assure you we're working very, very hard," he said, naming Homosassa as one of the utility's hardest-hit areas to deal with, along with Brooksville, Williston and Inglis.
Habermeyer attributed the lengthy delays to several factors. The storm's path westward across the state allowed crews to go into eastern counties first. Work started in those counties while Frances continued to pound the Nature Coast.
The large number of trees felled by high winds also slowed repairs. Progress Energy crews have made repeated service calls to many residences. Limbs loosened during the storm have fallen throughout the week, snapping lines already repaired by crews and slowing the process, Habermeyer said.
About 9,000 Progress employees are working to restore power to nearly 832,000 customers throughout the state. Close to 460 of these employees are working in Citrus County: 190 tree workers and 270 line workers.
Habermeyer apologized for the delay.
"We really regret that anybody has to go through any travail," he said.
As Hurricane Ivan spins toward the state, Habermeyer and his employees are bracing for another bout of outages. Progress Energy brought in crews from other states to help out with Frances, he said. Those crews will remain in Florida in case Ivan comes ashore.
County commissioners, too, were unimpressed by Progress' response even after factoring in the huge job the utility is doing, dragging workers in from as far away as Colorado.
Commission Chairman Josh Wooten said the utility had only 127 line workers and 86 tree workers in Citrus on Wednesday but began boosting the numbers after the county complained.
"It doesn't sound like a lot," Wooten said. "Then again, I'm a car salesman."
Commissioner Vicki Phillips said residents are so desperate to get power back, some are considering removing trees leaning on power lines because they don't see help on the way.
With restoration going slowly, she said, county officials have asked for a map or list of all homes without power so they can check on the condition of residents. But the utility has not produced a list.
"All the riding around I'm doing in the county," Phillips said, "I don't see any trucks out there. This place should be crawling with tree people and linemen, and I'm talking about today."
- Times staff writer Amy Wimmer Schwarb contributed to this report. Abbie VanSickle can be reached at 352 634-5879 or e-mail vansickle@sptimes.com