Austin Energy crews to help with Florida power outages as Hurricane Ian makes landfall

An Austin Energy convoy is rolling into Florida to aid with power restoration efforts in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian, which made landfall Wednesday as a Category 4 storm, packing winds and rainfall as intense as those Hurricane Harvey unleashed on Texas five years ago.

The 18 crew members, six bucket trucks and 12 support vehicles from Austin's electricity provider left at 6:30 a.m. Wednesday and are expected to remain in the Jacksonville, Fla., area for the next two weeks and possibly longer.

The Austin crew is expected to set up in a pre-staging phase, along with other energy convoys coming from around the country, in hopes of reaching affected areas once the storm clears out.

The hurricane, designated as an "extremely dangerous" Category 4 storm with winds reaching 155 mph, made landfall in southwestern Florida on Wednesday afternoon. The National Hurricane Center said Wednesday the state was seeing a "catastrophic storm surge" and heavy flooding as Hurricane Ian arrived on the coast.

"While things remain fluid as to where and when Hurricane Ian will make landfall, Florida public power is likely to be impacted regardless," Amy Zubaly, executive director of the Florida Municipal Electric Association, said Wednesday. "Currently, we have more than 500 mutual aid line resources from 18 states committed to assisting with restoration efforts, and we are continuing to work on securing additional resources."

The Florida Municipal Electric Association has coordinated with the American Public Power Association to use a national mutual aid network, which connects power providers across the country to regions that need help in preparation for and response to natural disasters.

So far, crews are coming into Florida from states across the Midwest, South and Northeast.

According to tracking site poweroutage.us, on Wednesday morning nearly 270,000 Floridians were without power. That number rose to more than 1 million by early afternoon Wednesday and was expected to increase as the storm moves across the state.

On Aug. 25, 2017, Hurricane Harvey made landfall near Rockport and Fulton as a Category 4 hurricane, the first major hurricane to hit the middle Texas coast since 1970. Buildings in the popular tourist town of Port Aransas were literally blown to pieces by wind and storm surge.

The devastating storm, instead of sweeping inland, settled over Southeast Texas, dumping a North American record of 51.8 inches of rain on Houston.

Harvey caused $125 billion in damage in Texas, more than any other natural disaster in U.S. history except Hurricane Katrina, according to a 2018 report released by Gov. Greg Abbott's Commission to Rebuild Texas.

Harvey affected more than 41,000 square miles, an area bigger than Kentucky, and destroyed more than 15,500 homes; forced 780,000 Texans to evacuate their homes; damaged or destroyed thousands of businesses; prompted 24 hospitals to evacuate its patients; caused 61 communities to lose drinking water; and 781 roads were impassable at some point.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Austin Energy heads to Florida to restore power after Hurricane Ian