We had more warning for the recent storm, but the results for both were similar - lots of people left in the dark.
By JON WILSON
Published October 6, 2004
ST. PETERSBURG - Hurricane Jeanne blew out lights for thousands of power customers 10 days ago, leaving people sweaty, sleepless, hungry for a home-cooked hot meal - and perhaps wondering how anyone could manage before electricity's era.
Progress Energy completed restoring power to its customers in time for this past weekend, said spokesman Aaron Perlut. "Everyone that could receive power, they were back by Friday midnight," Perlut said Tuesday.
At the peak of the Jeanne-caused outage, 313,174 customers were without power in Pinellas and parts of Pasco counties, according to company figures.
Turning it all back on in five days might be considered relatively speedy. It took about that long to get power returned to St. Petersburg when the Oct. 25, 1921, hurricane smashed through - the last time a storm that strong hit the Sunshine City head on.
It likely brought winds of Category 2 strength, 96 to 110 mph.
Then, St. Petersburg's population was probably about 15,000. The 1920 census pegged it at 14,237.
Newspaper reports the day after the hurricane pointed to "a tangle of fallen wires" attended to by "the trouble crews of the St. Petersburg Lighting company."
The city had enjoyed electricity since 1897, when Philadelphian F.A. Davis built a power plant at the foot of Central Avenue where the Yacht Club sits today. They set off fireworks in Williams Park, and the city band played marches.
The juice, generated by a wood-burning boiler, a steam engine and a 50-watt dynamo, lit homes, businesses and an "electric" pier, which promoters touted as a big tourist attraction.
But power wasn't nearly as pervasive as today. It had arrived three decades before air conditioning's appearance here. Electric ranges weren't in vogue. People cooked on wood stoves or, after 1914, with gas the city plant supplied.
Even so, losing electricity provided a challenge. And everybody evidently lost it.
For safety's sake, acting fire chief Perry Eastern and electrical inspector William Callahan ordered the power cut off all over town, even in the few areas still lighted.
Proprietors of Central Avenue's two ice houses panicked. So did the meat marketeers.
The day after the hurricane, the Independent, the city's evening newspaper, reported: "There was a rush on the grocery stores for candles and lamps. Almost every candle in town was sold ... and even candles for birthday cakes were being pressed into service."
Residents then did not have the dubious luxury of tracking storms for days. They had almost no chance to stock supplies.
The day before the hurricane struck, the Independent carried a small article with a one-column headline: "Predict Gale This Section." On the morning before the strike, the Times published a Page 2 story, also with a one-column headline: "City Escapes Big Hurricane."
Newspaper reports said the Caribbean-generated storm was crossing western Cuba and that warnings were up from Key West to Apalachicola. It said St. Petersburg expected "no serious blow" and predicted a landfall in Mississippi.
A man died when an awning fell on him. Otherwise, power was the city's major casualty.
It began coming back on the evening after the storm. The ice plants and the meat markets were first to get it.
"There were cheers all along the street," said a newspaper report.
Most homes and businesses within the city limits had their lights no later than three days after the storm.
But there were a couple of exceptions. A residential section between Fifth and Ninth avenues N, bounded by Fifth and Eighth streets - a large part of today's Uptown neighborhoods - had a particularly stubborn nest of tangled wire, officials reported. The Bayboro area experienced similar problems.
Even as power returned, officials warned residents to be wary.
They told people to watch for steam coming from the plaster on walls or ceiling, or smoke in the house.
Officials offered succinct advice if either phenomenon were to be spied:
