Pine Island. FL - Lee County Electric Cooperative (LCEC) officials have announced a 15 day time frame to get power restored in Pine Island, the largest island on the Gulf Coast of peninsular Florida in the United States.
LCEC has teamed up with Duke Energy to bring power back to the 7,400 residents on Pine Island, which has been without power since Hurricane Ian made landfall on September 28th.
Pine Island Road reopened last week, allowing 735 lineman and linewomen to make way to the island to restore power to the area.
LCEC officials say many homes in neighboring St. James City are also without power, however many homes there have been deemed unlivable.
Pine Island resident Carol Rahed told NBC 2 News "our power is slowly coming. When I look down the street and I see 20-30 powerlines and guys up in there. God bless them! They deserve a million, million dollars for everything they’re doing."
According to LCEC Technical Training Coordinator Carl Kingsbury, crews worked on lines on the main circuit into the substation on Monday.
Kingsbury told NBC 2 News “the process started at the substation, working our way out, getting the main feeder up. That’s where the bulk of all the service comes out is the main feeder."
LCEC says residents of Pine Island and St. James City should expect to have power restored in the next 15 days.