Northeast Florida utility companies prepare for storm outages

Florida Power & Light says it is prepared for any power outages resulting from Tropical Storm Hermine.

The company serves more than 200,000 people in the Northeast Florida area. Many of them live in St. Johns County.

A spokesperson told Action News Jax that the company has been installing more resilient infrastructure in recent years.

“We’re identifying all the resources, identifying all the people,” said Rob Gould, vice president of Florida Power & Light. “(We’re) making sure we’re identifying all the locations based on the storm’s path, historical modeling and proposed intensity.”

Still, outages are inevitable.

That’s why FPL is sending nearly 5,000 crew members from South Florida in anticipation for power outage restoration work.

The company is also sending one of its mobile command centers. The vehicle will be used on-site to help restore power outages.

“It doesn’t look like anything right now but this could be a very different situation tomorrow,” said Gould.

Gould says the biggest concern for the company during a storm is that customers aren’t prepared for a power outage.

He says 40 percent of FPL’s customers have never experienced a hurricane or tropical storm-like system.

As for utility customers in Jacksonville, a JEA spokeswoman said an email about storm preparedness was sent to customers Wednesday afternoon.

Customers can find more information about storm preparedness on JEA's website.

Cox Media Group