Job by job, Progress Energy workers come face to face with residents who are glad to see them.
By ALEX LEARY
Published September 29, 2004
NEW PORT RICHEY - The rumble of a Progress Energy truck drew the people of Citrus Drive to the curb. Some applauded, others gave thumbs up. One man raised a glass of red wine.
"Sometimes you feel like you are doing the victory lap at the Indy 500," said Kent Allen, a Progress lineman who led a convoy of tree trimmers through the Grove Park area on a sweltering Tuesday afternoon.
After more than two days without electricity, help was on the way, and the residents of the neighborhood off U.S. 19 and State Road 54 were an appreciative lot. Most of them, anyway.
"I'll give you until 5 o'clock," a woman snarled from inside her chain link fence.
"Be patient. Be patient," Allen, 41, calmly called back.
He is one of about 200 people Progress Energy has working to restore power to Pasco County. Many are Progress employees, but a good number are out-of-state contractors. The tree trimmers Allen guided came from Kentucky and Texas, and others came from Michigan, Oklahoma, Alabama and the Carolinas.
As of Tuesday afternoon, approximately 19,000 of 116,000 Progress' Pasco customers remained without electricity. The company wants to get them all back on the grid no later than midnight Friday.
"I don't think we'll have any problem meeting that," said Allen, a 16-year veteran who resides in Hudson and has worked 18-hour days since Jeanne swept in.
He spent the first part of Tuesday on Highland Loop off State Road 54. It was a slow process because power lines are situated behind the homes, unlike new developments, where suspended lines are out along the street. Getting trucks and cherry pickers in is difficult, if not impossible.
Many of the power lines still were intact but were sagging under fallen trees. A contract tree trimmer ripped the cord on a chain saw and within minutes, had freed the lines behind one house.
"You've got to figure out if it's best to cut the line down or the tree," Allen explained. After four hours, the neighborhood of about 50 homes was pretty well secured and Progress was ready to restore power.
"It's been hot and slow going," said Rudolph Hodge, 54, a lineman from Oklahoma who worked in Alabama after Hurricane Ivan and was called on his way home to turn to Florida.
Allen was on his third long-sleeved shirt of the day when he got in his diesel truck and drove to Grove Park, stopping on Flamingo Drive. His apprentice, Robert Douin, walked behind a green home to inspect a pipe that protects the line feeding the property. The pipe was bent over, the lines nearly touching the ground.
"Electrician?" Douin said.
"That's hot, huh?" Allen replied. "Yeah, she'll need an electrician."
Progress Energy owns only the line, Douin explained to Nereida McBeath, who is caring for her 95-year-old mother. She would have to call an electrician to repair the meter, then the power would be restored.
"Anybody touching that would kill themselves if they didn't know what they were doing," Allen said. He then walked down the street to disable a main line so work could be done without harm.
Moments later, Allen was back in his truck and driving to meet the tree trimmers from Kentucky and Texas. He brought them back to Flamingo, where the men, some speaking Spanish, donned chaps, chains and belts and slipped behind the homes.
"It's been hot and slow going," said Rudolph Hodge, 54, a lineman from Oklahoma who worked in Alabama after Hurricane Ivan and was called on his way home to turn to Florida.
Scotty Schwallie, a softspoken 23-year-old Kentucky resident dressed in camouflage pants and a black sleeveless T-shirt, dragged a limb to a brush pile. This was light work, he said, compared to the mess created by Hurricane Ivan. "On the way down from Pensacola we were all wondering, "Where is the damage?"
Tell that to Jim Bryan, 60, who had been without power for 21/2 days. Progress Energy should have responded faster, he told a reporter. He grumbled about throwing out the steak and salmon in his freezer. "I don't live in the middle of nowhere. It's past time they got here."
Allen headed to a back yard to check on the tree clearing and was cut off by Mary Jones, who was bearing a basket of danishes. He took one, took a bite and gave her a hug.
