Nearly all service restored to Florida residents within hours after Hurricane Nicole
Just hours after the remnants of Hurricane Nicole left the state, power companies reported nearly all of their customers affected by the storm had their power restored.
Florida Power & Light (FPL) reported 483,930 customers lost service after the storm hit the state on Thursday morning. Most of those customers saw their power return within 12 hours, the company said. By 8 a.m. EST Friday, 465,650 (95 percent) of those customers saw service restored.
“While our brave men and women have made tremendous progress in short order, we are laser-focused on the remaining customers who are without power,” said Eric Silagy, chairman and CEO of FPL. “We will not stop working until every customer is restored, and I urge everyone to keep safety top of mind as we complete restoration.”
FPL credited its hardening of the energy grid, underground neighborhood power lines and smart grid technology for its rapid restoration of service.
Duke Energy said that as of 9:30 a.m. EST Friday, about 14,000 customers were without power in Florida. The company is on track to restore service to nearly all of its customers who lost service during the storm by 10 p.m. Friday, officials said. About 250,000 customers had service restored by Friday morning.
“This storm impacted every area in our service territory, but we were ready,” said Todd Fountain, Duke Energy Florida’s storm director. “We appreciate everyone’s patience and support as we work to safely restore everyone’s service as soon as possible.”
The storm made landfall near Vero Beach as a Category 1 Hurricane, before crossing the state and heading up the coast as a strong tropical storm. The storm finally left the state around 8 p.m. on Thursday leaving heavy damage in Brevard County, as well as damage to the north-central and panhandle regions of the state. The storm, the first November hurricane to threaten the state since 1985, comes just weeks after Hurricane Ian hit the state on Sept. 28 as a Category 4 hurricane.
The storm is expected to travel north through Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia on Friday before bringing heavy rain to New England through the weekend.
