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Power surges affecting the Space Coast
Persistent power surges have neighbors losing sleep, money and peace of mind. They're concerned about medical equipment working through the night.
BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. - Persistent power surges have neighbors losing sleep, money, and peace of mind. They're concerned about medical equipment working through the night.
People in several Space Coast communities say they dealt with overnight outages all last week and were struggling to get answers from FPL. It affected people in Viera, Rockledge, Suntree, and others who were all trying to find a solution on social media.
Many were confused because they hadn’t dealt with persistent issues like this when severe weather wasn’t a factor.
"It was pretty widespread, and it affected a lot of people that had oxygen equipment and people on CPAP machines," said Mitzi who lives in Viera and was one of many who called FPL to report the issue.
Jason Adams is one person who had a health complication from the power surge.
"I woke up choking, gasping for air," said Adams.
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His CPAP shut off during a power surge last week in Suntree.
"When the power went out, basically my machine stopped pushing air and because it draped over my nose, it basically blocked me from being able to breathe," he added.
Neighbors say the lack of sleep and a lack of answers were frustrating.
"You accept it for one night, but when it goes on for two or three nights, you go – what’s going on?" added Mitzi.
Mitzi says her alarm system and pool equipment had to be manually reset every time there was a surge in the middle of the night.
"You’re losing sleep because you’re getting up at 1 and 3 and 4:30 a.m.," she added.
Others say they lost money from the surge.
"It cost me $825 exactly," said Jerry, who lives in Viera.
He says the surge cost him hundreds because it damaged his garage door. He’s now filing a claim with FPL.
"We’ll wait and see how that works out," he added.
FOX 35 took these concerns to FPL.
In a statement sent to FOX 35, the company wrote, "The outages were caused by salt contamination on our infrastructure due to dry, windy conditions … FPL crews have worked to remove the salt contamination to prevent further outages. We apologize for the disruption this caused some of our customers."
These homeowners also say more communication, like a text or email, would have helped them understand the issue and know it was being worked on.