The breaking news yesterday morning from Palm Springs, “Crash knocks out electricity to 3,000”.

Below is a blog post from yesterday titled, “Reporting the facts, making the complex understandable for the public”. Kudos go to Palm Beach Post reporter Olivia Hitchcock.

Below is the news article by Hitchcock that also appeared in yesterday’s print edition. And also below are two maps of Central Palm Beach County (CPBC) that will help anyone who still has any questions.

But first. . . a question and then the answer:

“How can a car crash in the Village of Palm Springs, west of Palm Beach State College in suburban (unincorporated) Palm Beach County, north of the Great Walled City of Atlantis, and outside the municipal City limits of Lake Worth involve the Lake Worth Electric Utility? Isn’t that FPL territory?”

The answer is “No”, that is not FPL territory.

Here’s why: The Lake Worth Electric Utility services parts of Palm Springs and other areas in suburban Lake Worth as well. Use this link for the “City of Lake Worth Service Areas”. FYI: Mr. Ed Liberty is the Dir. of Lake Worth Electric Utilities and Walt Gill is the assistant director. To learn more about the Lake Worth Electric Utility click on this link.

Without further ado. . .

Two excerpts from the article by Olivia Hitchcock that also appeared in the print edition (12/15) on page B3 titled, “Crash knocks out electricity to 3,000” [note: “Palm Beach State College’s Lake Worth campus” is outside the City of Lake Worth but uses a ‘Lake Worth’ zip code; refer to zip code map below]:

PALM SPRINGS — Three thousand Lake Worth Utility customers, including some of Palm Beach State College’s Lake Worth campus, were without power Thursday morning after a car crashed into a utility pole on Lake Worth Road, authorities said.
     The multi-vehicle wreck happened at about 6:30 a.m. between Military Trail and Congress Avenue, Palm Beach County Fire Rescue authorities said.

and. . .

     The crash caused a utility pole to snap in half and catch fire.
     Lake Worth Utilities had restored power by 8:30 a.m.
     “We sincerely apologize to all customers affected by this outage,” said city manager Michael Bornstein in an emailed statement. “I would like to commend the electric utility team whose quick response allowed us to fully restore power within two hours of the initial accident.” [emphasis added]

Click on maps below to enlarge.

Maps courtesy of your Palm Beach County government.

Take note of Lake Worth Rd. (areas shaded white are unincorporated CPBC). The large body of water is Lake Osborne in the County’s John Prince Park which includes Palm Beach State College. Note the Village of Palm Springs and the Great Walled City of Atlantis in relation to these landmarks.

Please note: The City of Lake Worth only uses zip code 33460 and a small part of zip code 33461.

As you can see, parts of the City of Lake Worth and the Village of Palm Springs share the zip code 33461. The area in white between is called the
“Lake Worth Corridor”.