Highlands County curfew extended another
week
Highlands
County News-Sun | August 22 2004
SEBRING -- Highlands County commissioners
have extended the local declaration of an emergency for another week.
That means that the 9 p.m. to 7 a.m. curfew for the entire
county will remain in effect for that time.
Law enforcement officers have recommended the curfew as
a means of preventing looting or injury during the night in those areas
of the county or municipalities that still have not had power restored.
County Administrator Carl Cool said that people who are
driving through Highlands County, or are on the road en route to help with
emergency services or relief will be exempt from this curfew, but may be
stopped by officers anyway as a precaution.
So far, no one has been arrested for violation of curfew.
Sheriff's Sgt. Paula Weeks, speaking on behalf of the Highlands
County Sheriff's Office at Tuesday's county commission meeting, said that
the curfew is meant to apply to pedestrians walking through the unlit areas
where they can't be seen in the dark.
The curfew will have an effect on nighttime business, as
well. Commission Chairman David Flowers confirmed that any restaurant or
store that normally keeps evening hours will be asked to be closed by 9
p.m. for as long as the county remains under a state of emergency.
This will apply evenly to businesses that have power and
those that do not.
In light of this, the Highlands Little Theatre announced
Tuesday that night performances will be suspended until after the curfew
has been lifted.
There is no word yet on whether matinee performances will
be scheduled as there is no word yet on when power will be fully restored.
Mac Harris, the communications director for Progress Energy's
Crystal River Nuclear Plant, told the News-Sun on Tuesday that the storm
caused 502,000 of its 1.4 billion Progress Energy customers to lose power.
By 5 a.m. Tuesday, 298,000, or 60 percent, of those customers had their
electricity restored leaving only another 204,000 yet to be powered up.
That number, he said, would change through the day and throughout the week
as more and more customers come back on line.
"You can still see some of the areas where the power
is down, but we're getting it back up," he said.
Harris said there are 17 states who have supplied utility
company resources to help reconstruct the power lines to Highlands and other
counties affected by Hurricane Charley.
He said there are 6,000 crew people in Central Florida
actively helping with the reconstruction efforts. Of those, only 2,700 are
actual Progress Energy employees. Crews are working 24 hours a day, seven
days a week until the work is completed.
He said it could still be as late as midnight Tuesday before
all customers are back on line, including those Progress Energy customers
in Hardee County who also lost power.
"This was a major storm," he said, explaining
there was 700 miles of transmission lines destroyed in the storm.
"We've had a lot of great cooperation with the local
people. We've even had some reports of people standing down traffic to let
these big line trucks through," he said.
