Florida - Update: As of early Monday, FP & L said just over 23 thousand customers in Volusia County were still in the dark out of 178,400 customers. At the height of Hurricane Matthew, 169,390 were without service.
FP&L says it hopes to have all customers back on line by the end of Monday. Some areas with more serious damage and flooding could take longer to repair.
A link to the latest outage numbers locally is here.
Earlier reporting:
Florida Power & Light says they're ready for Hurricane Matthew and they've mobilized a restoration workforce of more than 6,300 employees and contractors so that power restoration can begin as soon as it's safe and will be done as quickly as possible.
"FPL is taking this storm extremely seriously, and as a result, we are mobilizing and pre-positioning a restoration workforce of more than 6,300 FPL and contractor workers so that we can quickly begin restoring power to our customers as soon as it is safe to do so," said Eric Silagy, President and Chief Executive Officer of FPL. "Now is the time to make individual preparations, particularly those who are dependent upon electricity to power medical equipment. While the exact path remains unclear, we're asking our customers to make safety their highest priority."
The high winds and heavy rain expected to accompany Hurricane Matthew, which could last up to 2 days, are expected to damage electric lines and equipment and to cause power outages. FPL asks customers to be patient with restoration efforts, which may be delayed because it's unsafe for workers to operate bucket trucks if wind speeds are 35 mph or higher.
But FPL has spent over $500 million on vegetation management over the past decade and they've invested heavily in their infrastructure. "For the better part of the past decade, FPL has invested heavily in developing one of the nation's most advanced smart grids," said Silagy. "A key focus of that investment has been to make the electric system stronger by upgrading main power lines that serve critical local facilities and other community needs. This prepares our system to better withstand severe weather, and importantly, enables us to restore power to our customers faster following major storms."
Copyright Southern Stone Communications 2016.
