Message received from LWEU datelined Sept. 17th, 2017, 1700 hours: “100% of reported electric outages restored!”

Exactly one year ago today at 5:00 p.m. everyone’s power was restored following Hurricane Irma.


But have you ever wondered why was so little was ever reported in The Palm Beach Post about what happened during that terrible storm last year in this City of Lake Worth? Find out why below.

And hope you enjoy the video at the end of this blog post produced by the Lake Worth Electric Utility (LWEU) following that massive hurricane.

The video produced with very Hipster music is of LWEU reporting about the “power restoration recap” following Irma. Assistant Dir. Walt Gill is featured along with other officials and linemen including those from out of town brought in to help get all the power restored in this City, areas in the Village of Palm Springs on LWEU and suburban Lake Worth too, e.g., Palm Beach State College and Jon Smith Subs (a critical need for College students).

Very little about what happened prior to, during, or post-Irma in this City was ever reported in the Post. However, a few days after the storms had passed and electric power was fully restored, City Manager Michael Bornstein was forced to publicly respond to an “egregious” story in the Post by a beat reporter who “took a crack at us.”

Why was so little reported in the Post about what happened? Because so many staff and employees had evacuated the area, including many beat reporters, and they didn’t return until well after the storm had passed. Marc Caputo at Politico had a thing or two to say about this. More about that momentarily.

As of May 1st this year Gatehouse Media is the new owner of the Post. But back in 2017 Cox Media was the owner of that newspaper.

In 2017 a man named Jeff Clemens was representing District 31 in the Florida Senate, a seat now held by State Senator Lori Berman. Just prior to the impacts from Hurricane Irma here is what Clemens wrote, echoing the sentiments of Marc Caputo last year:

“Palm Beach Post owners Cox Communications: You suck.”

Click on image to enlarge.

“Now what do we do?”

So just a few days before the high winds and storms arrived a whole lot of people working at the Post hauled ass out of town and that’s why there was so little news reporting about what happened in this City last year during Irma. But not everyone scooted out of town. Post reporter Joe Capozzi, a City of Lake Worth resident, hunkered in place and helped the City get information out to the public on Twitter.

And also thanks to the City of Lake Worth! Because of all their hard work getting information out to the public about what actually occurred did get reported and chronicled for posterity. Despite not being reported in the Post.

September 17th, 2017 at 1700: “100% of
reported outages restored!”

Enjoy the video!