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St. Cloud residents want answers from Duke Energy after numerous power outages

ST. CLOUD, Fla. — Residents who live in Wilton Manors in St. Cloud told Channel 9 they're fed up after they said they've been dealing with constant power outages, sometimes multiple times a day, within the past year.

The outages are so long at times they said it is making for what they feel are unbearable living conditions.

"The other night it was nine-hour power outage," said Wilton Manors resident Niki Hadley. "Some days it is two hours, but it has been almost every day for the past month and it has been constant problems for the past year."

Residents living along Keiser Avenue said without power their businesses, pets, sanitary conditions and health are at-risk.

"I sleep with a medical device, a CPAP machine, so when the power is out I cannot sleep," said resident Jay McCaig.

"We lost some of our stuff in the freezer," said Hadley. "I went to make breakfast the next morning, pancakes waffles and everything is thawed out. (I) can't feed my kids that."

Residents said they've been going to Duke Energy for answers as to why the outages are happening.

Duke explained the longer outages are due to car accidents where vehicles split power poles, but didn't have answers for the shorter outages.

Channel 9's Roy Ramos took the residents' concerns to Duke Energy, which released the following statement:

"We have also identified areas on our distribution lines where a grounded static line is making contact with our circuit.  We have repaired one such location and have an inspector on site reviewing 15 other locations."

Either way, residents said they want the problem resolved and their power outages to stop.