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JEA board chair says $35M in hurricane damage won't raise customers' bills

By Jenna Bourne, Action News Jax
By Jenna Bourne, Action News Jax

JEA CEO Paul McElroy estimates Hurricane Matthew caused $35 million worth of damage to the utility company.

After a board meeting Tuesday, JEA Board Chair Tom Petway said the damage expenses won't raise customers’ bills.

“No, primarily most of that will be paid by insurance policies and reserves that JEA already had for hurricane expenses,” Petway said.

McElroy estimates $19.9 million will be made up for by Federal Emergency Management Administration federal reimbursement, $3.3 million will come from state reimbursement, $8.5 million will come from property and casualty insurance, and $3.3 million will come from JEA’s insurance reserves.

McElroy told the board Tuesday that one thing he wants to do is review JEA’s timeline for mobilizing crews.

After the meeting, Petway said he did not believe JEA should have mobilized crews sooner.

“I just don’t think they should. I think we had – you can’t mobilize the crews until you have the hurricane. And then you can’t have them in the field because you have the hurricane. So we had all that timing in the right place at the right time,” Petway said. “I think the crews were mobilized in a timely fashion.”

McElroy also said JEA plans to look into adding more backup generators to sewage pump stations after Hurricane Matthew caused 67 sewer overflows in four days.

There are two locations -- Wills Branch and a dredge canal on the Ortega River -- that are still being monitored after sewage spills there.

“I don’t think it would create any rate increases, but the main point on that question is that we don’t really know the answer until we do our due diligence,” Petway said.

Action News Jax asked Petway whether JEA executives would get bonuses this year. He said it hasn’t come up yet, but they probably will.

McElroy responded to criticism that he was not on-site when Hurricane Matthew hit. McElroy said during Tuesday's board meeting that he was attending his daughter's wedding and was in frequent contact with incident command by phone.

Read Jenna Bourne's tweets from the meeting:

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