More than 8,000 customers in Pinellas and Pasco remain without power and Progress Energy anticipates high numbers to continue as Tropical Storm Debby outstays her welcome in the Tampa Bay area.
As of 7 a.m. June 26, 7,700 Pinellas customers were without power, said Rob Sumner, spokesman for Progress Energy. Another 500 customers were down in Pasco County.
The outages are widespread throughout both areas. In Pinellas, outages remain in Clearwater, Largo, St. Petersburg and other nearby communities. Pasco’s outages are primarily in the New Port Richey and Land O’ Lakes areas, according to Progress Energy’s outage map.
Crews are out trying to restore power, but Sumner said outages are expected to be commonplace until Debby exits the area.
“Because of the slow-moving nature of this storm, we do expect multiple outages throughout the duration of this event,” Sumner said.
Customers who experience a loss of power are asked to call Progress Energy’s outage line at 1-800-228-8485. Customers can track outages online by checking out Progress Energy’s outage map.
Reporting an outage is important, Sumner said.
“Don’t assume that somebody else has already called it in,” he said. “They need to call the outage line and report it so we can get it into our system.”
