In the dark

---

Click here for a larger image of the area affected by the outage.

For the second time in just days, tens of thousands of residents living along U.S. 19 in Pasco and Hernando counties lost power for hours on Sunday.

Residents and businesses along U.S. 19 in Hernando County and in parts of Pasco County woke up Sunday morning with no electricity.

More than 30,000 homes and businesses were in the dark. Power went out in the same area late Thursday night into Friday.

In a statement, Ernie Holzhauer of Withlacoochee River Electric Cooperative explained what happened.

"At 5:55 this morning power was interrupted to more than 30,000 members who live along the U.S. 19 corridor from Port Richey to just north of Weeki Wachee," Holzhauer said. "The interruption was caused by a failed Progress Energy transmission line."

Jennifer Socha, the guest service manager at the Best Western in Weeki Wachee, said power problems are leading to problems with guests.

Some are starting to complain.

"For as long as I've lived here the power outages haven't been this frequent in such a short amount of time," Socha said. "And the past couple of days it has just been really rough that the power has been going out as often as it has."

More Pasco County Stories

• Motel is New Port Richey's most dangerous address
• Marine says dress blues stolen from car
• UPDATE: Young father loses fight for life
• New Port Richey man fighting for life second time
• Pasco, Hillsborough Counties begin flood recovery
• Couple stabs each other in fight in Port Richey
• Pasco's economic development leader steps down
• Flood waters prompt evacuations in Pasco County
• Dubious distinction: most dangerous Pasco intersection

Contact Bay News 9

• Story ideas for our Assignment Desk
• Comments on Bay News 9 or BayNews9.com
• Bay News 9 Now (our news alert system)
  
• Neighborhood News (tell us about your event)

• Listen live
• Employee blogs
• Widget
• More services

• Breaking news alerts
• RSS news feed
• Upload video

Select the size text you want to use to view www.baynews9.com from the choices below.

Want to go green?

Going green is all the rage these days. Check out our green pages on BayNews9.com.

• Energy saving tips
• Eating green
• County by county recycling

Bay News 9's Partners

Become An Asterisk Hunter!

At Bright House Networks, we prefer to keep things simple.

So the next time you're looking for TV, home phone and Internet service with a 30-day, money-back guarantee, but without the fine print surprises, call

1-866-976-EASY.

Learn more at AsteriskHunters.com.