Hurricane Irma: Transformer sitting in middle of Jacksonville street since Monday

Neighbors on Wakefield Avenue in Jacksonville’s Panama Park neighborhood said they haven’t seen a single JEA truck, even though they reported a transformer had fallen onto in their street during Hurricane Irma on Monday morning.

A JEA spokesperson said it has 1,000 linemen working 17-hour shifts.

On Thursday night, tens of thousands of customers in Jacksonville were still without power.

Besides the transformer resting on the asphalt, Wakefield Avenue is blocked by crisscrossing wires, a power pole and a tree.

“On Monday morning, about 7, I heard a great boom. I slammed my room window down, and the grandkids were hollering and screaming, and I jumped up, came out and seen all this,” neighbor Corlissia Kelsey said.

Kelsey can’t even get her car out of her driveway.

“Left the wires wrapped around the car and everything,” Kelsey said.

She said she has asthma and needs to plug in her breathing machine.

“I’m a sick person. I got asthma, I had six mini-strokes, and I had kidney cancer,” Kelsey said.

Eight miles away in Arlington, Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry spent the morning with JEA linemen.

“Right now, we’ve got guys out here busting their butts to get power back on, and I stand with them and I am grateful for them. I just encourage management to communicate clearly with the customers of JEA,” said Curry.

Kelsey said she can’t get JEA to come out to her street.

“I’ve been calling them and they tell me on the line, ‘We already know. You don’t need to call us.’ And click,” Kelsey said.

Action News Jax asked JEA spokesperson Gerri Boyce at 12:39 p.m. on Thursday when crews would fix the problem on Wakefield Avenue.

“We are sending a troubleshooter,” Boyce said.

Boyce said she did not know when that troubleshooter would arrive.

“I know there’s other people that need JEA. There’s so many of us. But they need to come and assess this because the transformer done been out there for four days in the driveway. Anything could happen. A kid could come out there and throw a rock, or trip it over or anything,” Kelsey said. “Somebody just come and help us.”

Cox Media Group