MANATEE
As of Sunday night, a week after Hurricane Irma walloped Manatee County, there were 13,420 stories of living without power.
These are three of them.
Day 7: Cindy’s story
Cindy Kane’s frustration has steadily risen to a level where, if harnessed, could probably power the Northwest Bradenton neighborhood near Palma Sola Elementary School where she has now lived without electricity for seven days with her husband, Andy.
At 9 p.m. Sunday, the Kanes were among roughly 13,420 Manatee County residents still powerless after Irma rolled through Manatee County. Her demeanor is that of a war correspondent trapped in a bunker.
“No A/C, no lights, no use of my PC for emergency purposes or to pay bills that have come due,” Kane wrote to the Bradenton Herald Sunday. “And, of course, no TV updates on what is going on.”
Kane describes life in the dark as only a war correspondent could.
“Seven days of sweating, cleaning, clearing, cold-showering and waiting,” she said.
In her home “bunker,” her anger has bubbled up and over, and the object of her wrath is Florida Power and Light. She believes the power company, as it advised its customers to prepare for the storm, could have also prepared more for the hurricane by trimming trees near power lines over the past years.
“Florida Power and Light did not keep up on trimming all those trees, keeping their many power lines clear of those oak, pine, mango, cypress, banyan, ficus and carrot-wood claws, before this unprecedented storm had us in her grips,” Kane said.
“It occurred to me that all we really had in Manatee County were trees that got wrenched by Irma’s tendrils, causing the bulk of damage, structural, electrical and otherwise,” Kane said. “Overgrown trees were all over the power lines, everywhere, all across Manatee. The tree boughs were clearly visible, laden on the lines, in some cases bending them downward.”
Kane hopes FPL will amass its workforce and get the thousands of trees in Manatee that are still on or near power lines trimmed away in time for the next storm.
Meanwhile, FPL’s outages notification system has alerted the Kanes to expect power restoration on Wednesday, an improvement from a previous forecast of Friday.
“Hurrah!” Kane said.
Day 7: Alexia Creighton’s story
Alexia Creighton, 4, lives at 3315 33rd St. W., Bradenton, with her grandmother, Esther Creighton and her grandfather, Jack Creighton.
For the past seven days without power on her street, which is in the Clearview Manor neighborhood behind St. Joseph’s Catholic Church, something weird has happened to Alexia.
She suddently can’t watch cable TV’s “Team Umizoomi.” She is missing the animated adventures of Milli, her brother, Geo, and their robot friend, Bot. She also can’t watch “Peppa Pig.” Those two shows have been her life.
“The remote isn’t working,” Alexia implored incredulously to Esther “Nanna” Creighton a few days ago when she clicked it over and over to no avail.
“Well, it’s out of power,” Nanna replied.
What does “out of power” mean to a 4-year-old?
Nothing!
“I want my show!” Alexia told her grandmother.
“Sorry,” Esther Creighton told her granddaughter.
For several days, Alexia was super upset that this hurricane thing had messed with “Team Umizoomi” and “Peppa Pig.”
On Sunday, however, Alexia was finally happy again.
Esther Creighton had spread a blue blanket on the ground under the carport. Jack Creighton sat down on the cement along with Alexia’s aunt, Amy Mastroianni of Sarasota and Mastroianni’s daughter, Zoey, 22 months, and they all made things out of Play Doh for hours.
It was like a big family picnic.
“If you don’t have children you can spare yourself because you can go to the mall or do something,” Esther Creighton said of life without power. “But it’s very difficult when you have a child.”
“To the south of us, just at the end of the street, they got power just before dark last night,” Jack Creighton said, his voice filled with hope.
Day 7: Jay’s story
Jay Wollam, 79, has a combination of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Going a week without power has been hell for him. He was sitting on the front patio of his Bradenton block home Sunday enjoying cooler temperatures.
“The problem is the suffocating heat that you can’t get away from,” Wollam said Sunday of being powerless. “When you have been dealing with the temperatures we have been dealing with, along with the humidity, which has been stifling, it’s eating me alive not being able to get some dry air into my lungs.”
For the last 30 years, Wollam has lived at 3316 33rd St. W., Bradenton, actually across the street from the Creightons, who have also lived in the tree-rich neighborhood behind St. Joseph Catholic Church for 30 years.
Because Wollam’s home has a strong metal roof, he and the Creightons spent Sept. 10, Irma’s night, at his house.
”I couldn’t save the food,” Wollam said, explaining that it all defrosted. “I’m living on canned food.”
Getting to bed early because of lack of lights and getting up early has been the new routine, Wollam said.
“You can only stare at four walls in the dark so long,” Wollam added.
“The last couple of nights there has just been a breath of air,” Wollam said. “But from the storm through Wednesday, there wasn’t even a breath of air at night.”
Wollam isn’t as ticked off at FPL as Cindy Kane is.
“We are at the spot they just didn’t get to,” Wollam said. “I heard a couple of chain saws this morning so I think, hopefully, they are back in there somewhere cutting trees and getting us re-set up.”
Richard Dymond: 941-745-7072, @RichardDymond
This story was originally published September 17, 2017 6:47 PM.