Lido Shores: Power Problems in Irma's Aftermath

Rows of Power Company trucks at Robards Arena staging area await assignments following Hurricane Irma

It's hard to believe just 11-days ago we sidestepped a glancing blow from one of the most powerful Hurricanes, ever. Piles of brush and tree limbs still dot Lido Shores streets... and for most, if not for all of us, electricity has finally been restored. Some neighbors, us included, are still battling Comcast over internet and cable, but that's a minor inconvenience compared to what might have been.

A happy Jean Williams as power finally back on at 1461 John Ringling Pkwy
after 11-days without

Just received a text from LSPOA members Kent and Jean Williams on Ringling Pkwy that as of 12:45 pm, Wednesday (Sept 20) 10-days after Irma blew through, crews threw the switch and put them back on the grid. Susie and I were luckier, just seven-days without electricity. And other Lido Shorians luckier still who never lost power at all.

Jean Williams shows a sense of humor about it all

Anecdotally, it seems, be it Hurricane, tropical storms or just a typical afternoon downpour, some of the same homes in our neighborhood lose power time after time. Right down the middle of Lido Shores seems particularly vulnerable. The west side of Morningside Place, east side of Center Place and north side of Morningside Drive are almost always affected. There are two transformers along the back fence line of the Morningside Place and Center homes, and another two along Morningside Drive that oftentimes seem to be the culprits.

LSPOA member Andrew Vac on Morningside Drive says here's what FPL tells him: "It is the pole where my house meets Thomas Roach - Susan Thompson home (1130 Center Place). It's become a jungle because no one lives there and it is overgrown."

LSPOA members Lee and Kathy Edstrom on Center Place echoed similar thoughts: "One lesson learned is that we should be more vigilant about landscaping potentially putting our power lines at risk as well as out of respect for our neighbors. This might be an agenda item for the next meeting."

Wind and downed limbs contributed to power outages

Consider that these lengthy power outages happened without a major storm surge or Category 2 or higher hurricane winds. It's time for a neighborhood discussion. (See President Bob Lifeso's letter below.)

Thanks again to the many Lido Shorians who contributed to these updates: Bob Lifeso, Buddy Powell, Carol Bowen, Andrew Vac, Lynn Carvel, Gail Barzman, Lee and Kathy Edstrom, Jan and Cathy Voigts, Anne Essner, Jennifer Holland, Karen Kitzis, Christine Buckley, Roberto Arguedas, John Byles, Dan Mills, Kent and Jean Williams, Jon Boscia, Christine and Bill Isaac, Peggy Shannon, Kevin and Mary Berkebile, Eileen O'Donnell, Scott and Christine Key, Jeff and Dee Arnold, Susie Brown Thill and personal thanks to Elliott Himelfarb and Janet Minker for your boots on the ground help and for stepping up when needed most.

Bob Thill
bthill@ciloud.com

(Scroll down for more pictures)

LSPOA President Bob Lifeso also weighs in on Irma and its aftermath with this letter to membership:

Dear Neighbors:

Well I guess that is it for Irma. Now for the cleanup and of course discussion of what we learned from the first hurricane to hit our shores in a century. Unfortunately with climate change we may all be here for further “one hundred year” storms.

Some of our full time residents either were unable to evacuate for various reasons, or opted to stay in place. Fortunately we had no injuries and no serious housing damage that I can see from the exteriors.

We were able to keep in touch with our neighbors via cell phones, email and our lido-shores.com website, although we did miss Bob Garvin and the old “phone tree”. Tremendous thanks to Bob Thill who maintained our website with bulletins and warnings, and who helped to coordinate care for our neighbors who remained in situ.

Sue and I got back Friday night after a forced holiday in New York. Kids panicked Friday week when the storm shifted to the west, with our living room in the cross hairs. Jet Blue and American cancelled all flights as of Friday morning but Delta sent an empty plane from Atlanta on Saturday morning and we were in NYC by early Saturday afternoon.

We watched the storm move north and then suddenly shift east of I-75. The storm surge never occurred, sparing our homes.

For those of you who have yet to return, there's a lot foliage and trees down on the back side of Westway which I suspect took out the power to at least 36 of our 120 homes. As far as I can tell our home on Morningside Drive never lost power. Our power lines are buried. Whether that saved our power is uncertain. Power was restored to the end of Westway Drive Tuesday (Sept 19). Cannot tell if there are still individual houses without power.

The beach and beach pavilion are unscathed, maybe a minimal loss of sand, but overall about the same as last spring when many of you headed north. The west access gate to the beach area is still closed, but the gate to the easement at the end of Westway is open and you can always slip around our west gate.

I am interested in feedback as to what we have learned from this episode. Best to have the “post mortem” while the patient is still alive and can benefit. Keep in mind that there is a real chance that these weather phenomena will occur again, and possibly be worse. We dodged the worst of the storm and missed the storm surge. Will we be lucky again?

My initial thoughts are:

1) Bury the power lines to all the neighborhood. We have been discussing this since I moved here in 2005. Now is the time to move forward.

2) Make an evacuation plan for each home. Remember the next storm may be worse than Irma and you cannot count on evacuating by land or sea.

3) Daily notification system. It is now 2017, time to retire the phone tree and decide on how best to notify members in the entire neighborhood. Bob Thill and I fielded calls, and Bob posted daily updates on the website. We improvised and triaged as best we could, but now we need a more permanent solution. Making sure all members are subscribed to lido-shores.com to receive an email whenever there is a posting would be a good start. We have 105 subscribers signed up.

Please send me your thoughts, comments, anecdotes and pictures, or anything else you would like to discuss. This will certainly give us something to talk about at the LSPOA Annual Meeting in January.

Stay safe.

Bob Lifeso, LSPOA President
lifeso1@aol.com