A worker trimming trees in Florida was electrocuted by a power line that was hanging low because of Hurricane Irma’s winds.
Emergency medical response units pronounced the man dead at the scene.
The incident occurred on the 600 block of Freeling Drive on Siesta Key, according to The Herald Tribune.
Sarasota County Emergency Services said the victim was working in a bucket and couldn’t be reached until Florida Power and Light could come and turn off the grid.
A utlity worker in Florida was killed after cutting a low-hanging power cord in the wake of Hurricane Irma (Pictured: Sept. 14, 2017)
The man was working to restore power back to the state and was pronounced dead at the scene by emergency response units
Hurricane Irma affected nearly every part of the state, and some two dozen deaths in Florida are attributed to the storm.
‘They had to de-energize the grid before they could get to the patient,’ Emergency Services spokeswoman Ashley Lusby said.
Police cut off traffic to the area following the accident, where several houses still had low hanging cables exposed following the storm.
Those houses still had piles of debris and fallen tree branches lining the roads that had yet to be collected, the Herald noted.
Earlier in the week, a lineman from a Pennsylvania power company was injured after being electrocuted in Engelwood.
Earlier in the week, a lineman from a Pennsylvania power company was also injured after being electrocuted
West Penn Power employee Tracey Slaugenhaupt, 53, was part of a crew of thousands sent to Florida to help restore power to the state in the wake of Hurricane Irma which struck earlier this month.
Slaugenhaupt was airlifted to a nearby Brandenton hospital where doctors performed surgery the same day.
Slaugenhaupt’s condition remains unknown.
West Penn Power currently has 60 employees working in the Gulf Coast.