STATEMENT BY:
Amy Zubaly, Executive Director, Florida Municipal Electric Association
Regarding Public Power Restoration Efforts Following Hurricane Ian
“Devastation caused by Hurricane Ian left more than 2.6 million homes and businesses in Florida without power. Twenty-two of Florida’s 33 public power utilities were impacted with peak outages reaching 212,344 customers. As of 3 p.m. today, and within 48 hours of Hurricane Ian’s landfall, Florida public power utilities restored power to more than 61 percent of customers who experienced outages. This is significant progress given the extent of the damage to the system, localized flooding hampering restoration efforts, and extreme wind conditions.
Florida public power mobilized a team of more than 750 line resources from 125 utilities in 22 states to assist with restoration efforts. Crews have been working around the clock to restore power to Florida’s public power communities and will continue to work tirelessly until the remaining 82,108 public power customers are back online.
Florida public power is committed to restoring power as safely and quickly as possible. Restoration is first prioritized for public health and safety facilities, as well as making repairs to critical electric system components to bring the power back to the greatest number of customers as quickly as possible.
Mutual aid crews that have assisted with full restoration in impacted public power communities will be redirected to other areas of the state or offered to other utilities in need.”
The Florida Municipal Electric Association (FMEA) represents the unified interests of 33 public power communities across the state, which provide electricity to more than 3 million of Florida’s residential and business consumers.
