FMEA Statement Regarding Power Restoration Efforts Following Hurricane Milton

STATEMENT BY:
Amy Zubaly, Executive Director, Florida Municipal Electric Association

“Hurricane Milton made landfall as a Category 3 storm near Siesta Key, just south of Tampa Bay, around 8:30 p.m. last night and continued its trail of destruction across the state into this morning. Milton brought a deadly tornado outbreak, destructive winds, flooding, rain and widespread power outages.

In advance of the storm, the Florida Municipal Electric Association (FMEA) amassed a restoration workforce of more than 2,500 personnel from more than 100 utilities across 22 states. Crews were strategically pre-staged to respond quickly to bring the power back to impacted areas. As of 9 a.m. today, more than 3.3 million customers statewide are experiencing power outages, with 279,000 of those customers in Florida public power communities.

Public power crews have been in the field restoring power as conditions have been safe to do so. Working together with our mutual aid and supplemental crews, Florida’s municipal electric utilities have already restored more than 50,000 outages caused by Hurricane Milton.

Safety remains our top priority for both the public and our crews. The next goal is to restore as many customers as quickly as possible, following a prioritized approach.

The first step in the restoration process is damage assessment, followed by making essential repairs to critical electric facilities such as transmission lines and substations. The next order of priority is to restore power to essential facilities, such as hospitals, police and fire stations, while also restoring power to the greatest number of customers as soon as possible. Once the large impact areas have been restored, crews begin restoring power to single residences and smaller groups of customers. This continues until every last customer has power.

Following a storm, residents are urged to stay away from downed power lines and report downed lines directly to the local electric utility. Residents should also familiarize themselves with safe generator operation. When you see utility trucks and emergency service vehicles working along the roadside, always slow down and move over to protect the men and women providing essential services, such as power restoration.”