TAMPA - While little comfort to those enduring the heat without air conditioning, Tampa Bay bay area utility representatives say they are closing in on restoring all power.
About 18,000 people remained without electricity Friday evening.
"We know how hot, sticky, irritable and uncomfortable everyone is who doesn't have power," said Ross Bannister, spokesman for Tampa Electric Co. "We're working just as safely as we can to get it done as quickly as we can."
As of about 5 p.m. Friday, 5,000 Tampa Electric customers remained without power in Hillsborough County, down by half from the day before and down from 263,000 customers at the outset of the outage.
It appeared the utility would be unable to reach a goal of having all power restored by today.
Pasco and Polk counties also had hundreds of Tampa Electric customers without power.
Bannister said his own home, and those of a handful of his neighbors in Seminole Heights, were among the remaining unfortunate ones. He joked that he has now been "shunned" on the block.
The good news is officials at each of the area's utilities said they hoped to have all power back on by the end of the weekend. The bad news is the bright lights and cool air could be fleeting, with Hurricane Ivan threatening the state and some forecasts projecting it could pass or strike near Tampa Bay.
"We are keeping our eyes on Ivan," said Cherie Jacobs, a spokeswoman for Progress Energy Florida. "But we are steadfast in our focus to restore power to everyone who lost it during Frances."
Only 38 Progress Energy customers were still without in Pinellas, 27 in Pasco and 2,340 in Hernando. Still, 10,962 Progress Energy customers remained without power in Citrus.
"Citrus County was pretty hard hit," Jacobs said. The utility aims to have all power restored there no later than midnight Sunday.
Withlacoochee River Electric Cooperative managed to cut sharply into the number of outages remaining in its service area as of 6 p.m. Friday. There were 674 customers still going without in Pasco, as were 395 in Citrus and 3,350 in Hernando.
"We've seen a lot of people who are under a great deal of stress," said Ernie Holzhauer, spokesman for the cooperative. "We understand that. It's hot, and people are not used to going without electricity.
"Many of our employees have been working 14 hours a day, returning to work at 5 a.m. and starting all over again. Many of these workers haven't had time to go home and make repairs from this storm, let alone go home and prepare for the next storm."
Sumter Electric Cooperative was able to restore power to all of its customers in Citrus. Barry Bowman, the cooperative's director of public affairs, was not immediately able to update outage numbers in Hernando and Pasco counties, which were at only single digits in the morning.
Bowman said if a customer doesn't have power in Citrus, it is because the utility doesn't know about it. Any Sumter Electric customer in Citrus still without power is encouraged to call (352) 726-3944.
Projected path