Florida - 9/2/2016 Update: FPL has so far restored power to over 85,000 customers affected by Hermine, but as of 11 AM on Friday there are still 11,000 without power.
Officials say they expect to restore power to the majority of those customers by the end of Saturday.
"We understand that power outages are an inconvenience for our customers, which is why FPL prepares year-round for hurricanes and severe storms," said Eric Silagy, president and chief executive officer of FPL. "During the past decade, we have invested billions of dollars to harden our electrical system, upgraded our power lines and poles to be stronger and more resilient, and built one of the most advanced smart grids in the nation. Based upon our initial assessment from this storm, those investments are making a difference, resulting in fewer outages and faster restoration times. At this point in the restoration process, far fewer customers than we originally forecast have experienced outages from Hermine. That speaks directly to the investments we've made to make our electric grid stronger and smarter. We appreciate our customers' patience and we'll continue working around the clock until every customer's power is back on."
Original Reporting:
Over 5,000 crew members from FPL are on standby in case Hurricane Hermine causes power outages.
According to Richard Gibbs, Sr. Communications Specialist for FPL, FPL has "5,000 personnel ready, on standby, to move into the appropriate areas that we think will be impacted by the storm." The goal is to be able to provide the resources needed to get power back on safely and as quickly as possible. Gibbs says FPL has invested in technology over the past decade that will allow crews to know exactly where power outages are, which will help make response times quicker.
The focus for FPL is areas with heavy vegetation, where it's more likely for power lines to be affected.
"What we want the listening public to understand is that they have to take this storm seriously," said Gibbs. "We've prepared, and we have a good plan in place."
FPL customers can get in touch with crews and stay up to date on what's happening by going to FPL.com.
Copyright Southern Stone Communications 2016.
