CAPE CORAL, Fla. — Power restoration efforts continue tonight in Cape Coral as hundreds of customers remain left in the dark.
Lee County Electric Cooperative providing an update this evening on restoration efforts throughout the Cape, giving a new deadline of 100% back on the grid as of this Saturday. Cape Coral Mayor John Gunter was joined alongside the CEO of LCEC Denise Vidal.
“I realize that a lot of residents do not have internet, they may not have television service," said Gunter. "I find myself in that category as well.”
It’s a situation many in Cape Coral have been dealt with post Hurricane Ian- no power and no internet.
"We’re down to a couple hundred outages, I’m very happy to report," said Vidal. "And it continues to decrease as we get through today’s work.”
And yet a promising update from LCEC on restoration efforts. As electric crews continue working diligently on utility poles, challenges keep popping up along the way.
"They might be in the backyard and there might be some severe damage so you’ve got a crew or two that are working that. So it’s just getting to those locations across the entire city and getting those done. It’s not as efficient as when you’re just working one big circuit down a street, for instance.”
Taking a look at the latest numbers from LCEC’s outage map, Cape Coral has a little more than 950 customers without power. In North Fort Myers, a little more than 570 customers.
And as power gets restored, there are plans for LCEC to work with Comcast to bring internet back online.
“Once we’ve got the poles back up, they’ll come back through and they’ll stream their service through there," said Vidal. "We are working with them on some fiber connections to get the more upstream services ready so that they’re ready to roll.”
LCEC says their goal is to have 100% of power restored by October 15. In the meantime, the city is asking for patience.
"We’re in this together, like I’ve always said before," said Gunter. "We’re here to get through this. For those residents who have shown patience- thank you. And I ask the other residents to please show that same patience.”
And Cape Coral City leaders will be holding a town hall meeting with Congressman Byron Donalds tomorrow afternoon. That is meant to take place at Cape Christian Church.
