Why Getting the Power Back On in Florida Could Take Weeks

Why Getting the Power Back On in Florida Could Take Weeks
“But crews still need to check all the buildings and disconnect the ones with damage before they can restore service.”
Florida Power & Light plans to send out 16,000 workers, including crews on loan from other
utilities, said Eric Silagy, the company’s president, at a news conference on Monday.
WASHINGTON — As Hurricane Irma rampaged through Florida, snapping power lines
and damaging vital equipment, it left as many as 15 million people in the state without electricity, the Department of Homeland Security said on Tuesday.
“This is going to be a very, very lengthy restoration, arguably the longest
and most complex in U. S. history,” Robert Gould, vice president for communications at Florida Power & Light, which supplies electricity to roughly half the state, told ABC News on Sunday.
As of noon on Sept. 12, 2017
Percentage of people
without power per county
“You might have an area where most houses are O. K.,” said Mark McGranaghan, vice president of distribution
and energy utilization at the Electric Power Research Institute, a nonprofit group that does research for the nation’s power companies.
Many buildings connected to the grid may also have sustained damage to their electrical systems.