By Staff
After Hurricane Dennis made its destructive presence felt Sunday afternoon, the majority of the Atmore area was left without power.
While power has still not been restored to most residences and businesses in Atmore; crews are working hard on that and the majority of other public services are back running at full capacity.
Bob Gowing, Hospital Administrator at Atmore Community Hospital said his hospital was fully operational and with power for any needs of the Atmore community.
While the hospital is functioning, it did sustain roof damage due to the high winds caused by Hurricane Dennis. Gowing said that would not be a problem.
While the hospital does have power, many reading this article still may not. After Dennis made landfall, Escambia County had 28,000 homes without power. Of those, 18,000 were on Southern Pine Electric and 10,000 were Alabama Power, according to David Jennings, Director of Escambia County's Emergency Management Agency.
Peggie Byrd, Business Office Manager for Alabama Power in Atmore, said that Alabama Power was working hard to get everyone back online.
Mayor Howard Shell said during a city meeting Tuesday morning that Southern Pine Electric said they had 80 percent of its customers back online and expected to have everyone back by mid-afternoon today.
Byrd said that it would be a couple of days before everyone was back with power, but that crews were working overtime to do what they could now.
Tom Wolfe, head of the Atmore Utilities Department, said that things seemed to be running very smoothly with all the gas, water, and sewage in town.
Wolfe told the Advance that everything should be fully operational within the next day or two.
Earlier reports indicated a gas main had been damaged from the storm, but as of press time all indications pointed to that leak being fixed.
Most landlines were operational following the storm, and Frontier Communications had not issued any press releases or attended any public meetings to inform the public otherwise.
One of the less pressing, but still important, issues waiting to be addressed is when cable television will be restored to Atmore customers. Via a press release, Mediacom said that crews were already working toward that goal.
In its press release, Mediacom urged customers to not attempt to fix their own cable. The release also said to report any downed lines and service outage by calling 866-817-4358, Mediacom's toll-free number.
While most services are still working towards becoming operational, the United States Postal Service is living up to its motto in Atmore.
Thanks to the efforts by the Atmore Public Works Department, the postal service shouldn't have any problems delivering the mail.
Michele Gerlach contributed to this story.