Lightning caused Cape Coral power outages Sunday night

Reporter: Marcello Cuadra Writer: Paul Dolan
Published:
LCEC
LCEC truck. (Credit: WINK News)

An ongoing issue in Southwest Florida’s largest city revolves around power, almost two weeks since Hurricane Ian, and some people in Cape Coral still don’t have power.

Generators are seen all around Cape Coral, but Estelle Oren, a resident of the city, told WINK News she doesn’t have a generator, so she chose to take the heat.

“We’ve got nowhere to go to old people sitting in a house. Steaming boiling hot,” Oren said.

Oren told WINK News they got electricity back a week after the storm while they were in Fort Lauderdale.

“We immediately packed her things and came home. And we had electricity,” Oren said.

While it wasn’t a hurricane, on Sunday it was lightning that cut the power turning the lights off.

Oren’s reaction to the frustration was understandable.

Oh s*** for me, it was horrific. I’ll be honest because I’m off to surgery. And I have to keep my knee clean. And I need ice to ice it every hour. So from me, I can’t begin to tell you how horrific. That was. It was absolutely devastating to me,” Oren said.

Determined to get the lights back on or at least for an explanation, Oren tried calling LCEC, but didn’t have any luck.

“You cannot get through to anybody no matter how hard you try,” Oren said.

The Oren’s got their power back on Monday night, but Estelle’s husband, Michael, said the second power outage caused more stress.

“I’ve been in the military and stuff like that,” Michael said. “I’ve been through tougher times. But you know, I have to watch out for her. And of course, me I’m hot. It’s hot and sweaty.”

“Financial concerns to you know, get through, we replaced everything and refrigerator and freezer when we came back, and then we went to the store and you spent all that money, especially with inflation nowadays, replace it all. And here you go again, same old routine, you’re throwing it out,” Michael said.

WINK News reached out to LCEC and they said that the outage was caused by an intense lightning storm. As of Monday night there are about 2,252 LCEC customers without power.

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