ST. CLOUD, Fla. – Most residents at a St. Cloud mobile home community have electricity again after spending days without power, but neighbors say the ordeal is not over for everyone.
News 6 returned Monday to the St. Cloud Mobile Home Park after first visiting the community Friday following a viewer tip about residents living without electricity.
The difference was easy to see — and hear.
Air conditioners were running again. Fans were turning. Refrigerators that were empty Friday were beginning to fill back up.
But residents told News 6 that five homes were still without power Monday afternoon, leaving neighbors to help some of the people still waiting.
“We have five people left with no power,” resident Alfredo Sanchez said. He said residents were helping one neighbor buy gasoline to keep a generator running.
[WATCH: St. Cloud mobile home residents lose food, sleep in cars as power outage stretches into 3rd day]
From an empty refrigerator to some relief
When News 6 first met Sanchez on Friday, he said he had been sleeping in his car because his home was too hot without air conditioning.
He also said he had thrown away groceries and insulin that could no longer be kept at a safe temperature.
By Monday, Sanchez’s power was back and his refrigerator looked much different.
He showed News 6 food and water that other people had brought him.
“I’m very happy ‘cause I depend on this food,” Sanchez said, explaining that his diet is important because of his medical condition.
Getting electricity back, however, did not replace everything he lost. Sanchez said Monday he was still contacting his insurance company and others in an effort to replace insulin lost during the outage.
Residents describe days of disruption
Other residents told News 6 the outage forced them out of their homes.
Destiny Muirhead said she came home Wednesday night to find the community dark. After waiting for power to return, she eventually packed her belongings and her cat and went to stay with a relative because she relies on a CPAP machine.
Muirhead said she returned home after power came back over the weekend, although she said her electricity has continued to flicker.
“I lost my perishables. I lost my right to stay in my house,” Muirhead said, describing the physical difficulty of moving back and forth while dealing with a disability and back problems.
Oscar Bermudez said his electricity was out for about three days. He was able to use a small generator to power a machine he needs for sleep apnea, but said much of the food in his refrigerator had thawed by the time electricity returned.
OUC clarifies what happened
The Orlando Utilities Commission provided News 6 with an updated explanation of the outage.
OUC said it became aware of the outage on Aug. 5 and said the problem was caused by “a failure on a customer-owned line within the community.”
According to OUC, property management directed the utility to disconnect power to a portion of the mobile home park for safety reasons.
OUC said service could be restored once property management completed the repairs necessary to make the system safe.
That distinction is important: OUC’s statement says the failure occurred on a customer-owned line and that the required repair had to be made on the property side before service could be fully restored.
Email told residents a special cable was needed
News 6 also obtained an email sent to residents Thursday evening from COARE CO A LLC through RentCafe.
The message acknowledged residents’ frustration and said the community was working to get the electricity repaired.
However, it said the specific cable necessary for the job had to be specially ordered.
“We are making every attempt to get the cable by tomorrow and make this repair,” the Thursday message said.
By Monday, some residents told News 6 that communication throughout the outage remained one of their biggest frustrations.
Sanchez described communication as “very, very poor,” saying residents were being passed from one person to another when looking for information.
Muirhead said she wanted management to provide residents with more direct updates about what had happened, what was being repaired and when electricity was expected to return.
“They coulda went door to door, knocked on it, and let everybody know what was going on, when it was gonna be restored,” she said.
She described the restoration itself as a “Band-Aid over a broken bone,” saying she remains concerned the underlying problems have not been resolved.
Bermudez expressed a similar concern, calling what happened a “temporary fix” and saying he worries another outage could happen.
News 6 again tries to reach management
News 6 attempted to speak directly with management at the community on Friday and again Monday.
Multiple knocks at the management office went unanswered while News 6 was there Monday.
Residents said they also want answers about whether anyone will compensate them for groceries and other losses associated with the outage.
Sanchez said he has not been told he will receive reimbursement for the food he lost.
Muirhead raised the same question, noting that many residents — including seniors and people with disabilities — had already bought groceries at the beginning of the month when the power went out.
For most of the community, the immediate crisis has eased.
But for the five homes residents say remain without electricity — and for neighbors still asking what went wrong and whether it could happen again — they say the outage is not over yet.