Have power but don't flush unless necessary!!

Okay -- so we were without power for six hours or more! We waited -- and waited -- and watched as a myriad of Progress Energy trucks seem to circle the substation or whatever they call it.

I drove by about 6pm and noticed that some people had stopped to watch and also saw a Bay News 9 TV reporter and cameraman. I found that interesting since no one seemed to be covering an outage which was affecting some 34,000 Progress Energy customers. The reporter waved at me when he saw I had a camera. "Did you happen to get pictures when this was on fire?" Yeah, right! I was waiting right in front of this to see when it would blow up. Of course not!

I decided to ask him a question ... "Where have YOU been? The fire happened about 2:30pm and no one has reported anything and it is now 6:30pm and you are the only TV crew on hand." (Yes, I actually asked this question!) (Later Channel 13 (Fox) appeared.) He told me that the power company does not like to alert the TV stations so it wasn't until they started receiving calls around 4:30pm that they decided to check it out.

So .. you would think we could rest easy now that our power is back on -- it came back on somewhere near 9pm (off at 2:30 -- back on for about 30 minutes in the middle). Ha! Here is what the local TV news is telling us now -- ooops, sorry! Hold off flushing your toilet or using too much water ...

Pinellas utilities customers urged to limit water use and flushing

PINELLAS COUNTY,FL--As a result of a Progress Energy substation going down, seventeen Pinellas County Utilities pump stations are currently without power. This poses a threat of sewer system overflows occurring in the field.

Particularly vulnerable are the beaches south of Indian Rocks Beach to Treasure Island and Indian Shores as well as the southern parts of Seminole [where we live]. Customers are urged to limit water use and in particular flushing, showers and clothes washing until power is restored and the system is back on line.

Utilities is bringing in 9 portable generators which will be moved around as needed, however some of the stations are nearing overflow stage. Utilities crews are on stand-by to respond to any incidents.