FPL Assembles Largest Power Restoration Crew In Company's History

JUNO BEACH, FL — A restoration workforce of more than 16,000 Florida Power & Light Co. employees is standing ready to restore power to Florida's east coast after Hurricane Dorian passes through. That's the largest restoration workforce assembled in the company's history, said FPL officials.

Florida Power & Light is the main power supplier along Florida's east coast, providing electricity to five million customers in the state. Company officials are predicting "significant damage that could require crews to repair large parts of the energy grid."

At 2 p.m. Monday the storm was a category 4 with sustained winds of 150 mph.

The company has activated its emergency response plan, pre-positioning workers and equipment in preparation for Dorian's arrival.

But, due to the uncertainty of Dorian's track and intensity, officials said it is impossible to predict how many FPL customers may lose power.

They are simply urging customers to prepare for prolonged power outages.

"Hurricane Dorian's track remains unpredictable and there is a razor-thin margin of hurricane force-winds impacting Florida's east coast; therefore, at this juncture, it is impossible to predict how many FPL customers may lose power as a result of this powerful hurricane," said Eric Silagy, president and CEO of FPL.

Silagy said the east coast will be impacted no matter which path the storm takes.

"Even if Florida doesn't take a direct impact, we anticipate significant effects, including powerful tropical storm-force winds, possible tornadoes, storm surge and flooding from this slow-moving storm," he said. "These effects will create challenges with trees toppling, debris and vegetation blowing into our lines, which may require crews to repair large parts of our energy grid."

He said power workers will come in after the storm and cut away trees and other vegetation that have fallen into power lines, or that are in the way, to find and fix damage safely and as quickly as possible.

Workers will operate bucket trucks and restore service in between bands of severe weather, as long as winds are below 35 MPH and conditions are safe.

"We understand the anxiety many of our customers are feeling as this dangerous storm looms off our coast, and we want to reassure them that we're ready to respond," Silagy added. "We will work around the clock to restore power safely and as quickly as possible. As long as it's safe, we'll be out there restoring power and we won't stop working until every customer's electricity is back on."

• How FPL restores power
• Stay safe before a storm

Customers can download the FPL app to report or get the latest information on an outage.