Aid arrives to assist Lakeland Electric in restoring power after Ian
LAKELAND — Mutual aid crews began arriving in Lakeland Thursday prepared to get to the work of restoring power to Lakeland Electric customers.
The municipal-owned utility initially reported roughly 63,000 customers lost power due to Hurricane Ian. That number was reduced to 51,187 outages by 12:30 p.m. Thursday.
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Cathryn Lacy, LE spokeswoman, said the utility had started its post-Hurricane Ian damage assessment as of 11:45 a.m..
"We're seeing a combination of things — lines are down, limbs down, whole trees down — so its a combination of problems," she said.
Roughly 100 personnel are coming in from across the South to assist LE with restoring power.
Texas-based Lubbock Power & Light sent 15 vehicles and 18 crew members to lend a hand. The utility's director is Joel Ivy, former manager of Lakeland Electric. Other assistance has arrived from Denton Municipal Electric in Texas, Pike Electric and others from Tennessee.
Lakeland Electric's restoration process is to start by thoroughly checking the power plant before moving to the transmission lines.
"There we can get groups of thousands or hundreds of customers back on quickly," she said.
After that, the utility puts a high priority on the area's hospitals, fire departments and other places that provide critical services.
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"There is no estimation of restoration at this time," Lacy said. "We're hoping to have something really soon to share."
Lakeland Electric is asking residents to continue to stay away from down power lines, which may be energized.
Lacy has also asked those using portable generators to make sure they are outdoors, away from doors and windows of a building.
A generator should not be plugged into an outlet in a home or business as it could create potentially life-threatening backfeed on the system for restoration crew, according to Lacy.
Sara-Megan Walsh can be reached at swalsh@theledger.com or 863-802-7545. Follow on Twitter @SaraWalshFl.
This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Hurricane Ian: Aid arrives to help Lakeland Electric restore power
