Restoration efforts continue after Hurricane Dorian
Florida Power & Light Company (FPL), Duke Energy North Carolina, and Georgia Power crews are continuing their efforts to restore power to those affected by Hurricane Dorian’s landfall along the Southern Gulf Coast.
As of Sept. 5, FPL has announced that they have been able to restore service to all 160,000 customers affected by the storm. The company noted that some of the customers’ power was restored more than once using smart grid technology employed by FPL.
“Dangerous Hurricane Dorian is still churning off Florida’s northeast coast, and with tropical storm-force winds extending 175 miles out from the center, many customers in the northeast portion of the state continue to be impacted by this powerful storm,” FPL President and CEO Eric Silagy said. “Even when it’s not safe for our team to be working in the most severe weather, our investments in smart grid technology and to underground and strengthen the energy grid are enabling us to restore power faster and avoid thousands of outages. As suspected, downed trees and vegetation blown into our power lines have been a major cause of power outages for customers impacted by this storm.”
FPL is now working with other utilities to help reallocate resources to help respond to Dorian as it continues to impact Georgia, the Carolinas, and Virginia.
“Our team is actively responding to outages from Dorian, and we won’t stop until every customer’s power is restored,” Silagy said. “We’re working in lockstep with our mutual assistance partners as well. Once our customers are taken care of, we will reallocate resources to where they are needed the most, to help those in Dorian’s path prepare to respond as the storm travels up the coast. Safety remains our top priority, and I encourage all customers to remain vigilant and keep safety top of mind.”
Georgia Power announced Thursday that nearly 1500 employees and personnel have been mobilized following Dorian’s landfall on the state’s coast Wednesday night. The teams are responding to more than 250 individual cases of damage, including broken poles and downed lines. As of 8 a.m., approximately 15,000 Georgia Power customers are still without power.
Duke Energy North Carolina released a statement Wednesday stating that Dorian was expected to hit the Carolinas’ coast Friday afternoon or evening, potentially causing more than 700,000 power outages in the states’ eastern regions. The company is expecting some of those outages to last several days depending on aftermath damage and the abilities of restoration crews to reach affected areas.
