PANAMA CITY BEACH — Power to 125 units of the OceanVilla Condos went out Monday night during inclement weather and could be out until Dec. 5.
“The storm got us last night,” said building manager Jim Rossi. He said he believes a lightning strike damaged an electrical piece on the third floor of the 23-floor building, located at 10625 Front Beach Road.
“It’s the piece that goes from the transformer where power comes in and feeds up to each of the meters to each of the units,” he said. “It’s a bus bar that feeds power to all units from the third floor up. It is a custom-made piece. …” He said the part won’t arrive until next week and then there is a major installation job that likely won’t be completed until Dec. 5.
Rossi said the strike hit the worst possible floor.
“If it hit the top of the building, only the top floor would be out of power,” he said. “Everything that could go wrong went wrong — other than it would be worse if it happened in July. We have very low occupancy now.”
Rossi estimated there are only a dozen people staying in the building at this time of year. He said the few residents staying in the building are coping as best they can.
“We have power on the walkways. I’m telling them to get extension chords so they can plug up their refrigerator [to that power source] and not have food perish.”