Florida Power & Light restores power to 97 pct of high-priority critical infrastructure in service area

Florida Power & Light Company said Thursday that power had been restored to 97 percent of high-priority critical infrastructure, including all hospitals, emergency operations centers, air and seaports, correctional facilities and active military installations in its service area.

All 6,897 miles of transmission lines and all 601 substations are also again in service. Power was restored to 3.2 million customers. Crews are still working to restore power for the remaining 28 percent of customers impacted by the storm.

“Our restoration team, comprised of more than 21,500 men and women from nearly 30 states and Canada, is making steady progress every hour across 27,000 square miles of territory impacted by Irma, and we continue to bring thousands of customers back on each and every day. We thank our customers for their patience and support,” FPL President Eric Salagy said. “If you are still without power, we want you to know we are coming.”

Power has been restored to approximately 93 percent of nursing homes classified as priority critical infrastructure facilities. Nearly 2,000 impacted priority schools and 1,400 impacted gas stations have also received power again.

“I want to take this opportunity to thank our partners in what is arguably the largest restoration effort in the history of the U.S.,” Silagy said. “In each community, first responders, police and fire departments, county officials and countless others have been side-by-side with us as we work to do right by our customers. There’s no way we would be as far along in the restoration effort without these critical partnerships, and we won’t rest until every customer’s lights are back on.”