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Power Loss In Pinellas Sparks Worry Of Sewage Backup

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By Chris Taylor

TBO.com

Published: June 23, 2008

Updated: 06/23/2008 09:48 pm

At least 30,000 Progress Energy customers lost power this afternoon, mostly in the Largo area, a spokesman said.

Seventeen Pinellas County Utilities pump stations are also without power, according to a Pinellas County Utilities press release. The group is concerned about possible overflows and is urging customers to limit water use and toilet flushing. The county is bringing nine portable generators into the affected area. Once power is restored it will take up to twelve hours for the pump station to be fully operational, said Jim Delany, a spokesman for Pinellas County Utilities.

The release blames the outages on a Progress Energy substation going down.

The blackouts started at around 2:30pm

Originally, Progress Energy hoped to have power restored to all its customers by 8 p.m. However, about 15,000 homes and businesses were still in the dark after 9 p.m.

Customers without power are asked to call the Progress Energy outage hotline at 1-800-228-8486.

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