Hurricane Ian: Expect 'challenges in the days ahead,' says Florida Power & Light CEO
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The soggy conditions leading up to sluggish Hurricane Ian will make for “challenges in the days ahead,” said Florida Power & Light CEO Eric Silagy on Tuesday.
“We have a ground that is very saturated from a lot of rain over the course of the past weeks and months, and so we fully expect that there will be a lot of trees that go over. There will be a lot of debris that flies through the air,” he said during a news conference at FPL’s Command Center in West Palm Beach, also highlighting the risk of rainfall, flooding and storm surge.
As the storm passes overhead, FPL said customers should anticipate outages, even potentially prolonged ones lasting between 12 and 24 hours or several days. It all depends on how strong and slow the storm is and where it ultimately ends up, Silagy said.
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“We may see tornadoes. We may see very strong pockets of damage, which cause us to actually have to rebuild the system, which will just take longer to (restore power),” Silagy said.
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While every storm is different, Silagy said Ian’s path is reminiscent of Hurricane Irma in 2017 and Hurricane Wilma in 2005.
“But really you never know what Mother Nature is going to throw at you, so what we do is we prepare for the worst, we plan and we drill for it, and then we adjust depending on what actually happens,” he said.
FPL may close its Manatee County power plant in Parrish if winds get to over 100 miles per hour, but the closure won’t impact the utility’s ability to provide power, he noted.
The Juno Beach-based utility announced Tuesday it had added 3,000 more restoration crew members to the 13,000 it had prepared to deploy the day before, with assistance coming from 27 states. The utility is setting up 24 staging sites to quickly deploy teams to restore power in affected areas.
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FPL will also use its smart-grid technology to try to restore power when conditions are too dangerous for crews to be out, in addition to using drones to survey damage once the storm passes. Silagy said it would take the utility about a day after the storm passes to fully understand the extent of the damage and get a sense of how long restoration efforts will take.
“I would ask you to finalize your plans, batten down your hatches and be prepared to ride out the storm and know that we will, as soon as it is safe, be out in the field restoring power, 24 hours a day until the last customers are restored,” Silagy said.
Silagy advised residents to stay off the roads when the hurricane hits and assume every downed line is an electrified power line. If you see a downed line, report it to emergency services or Florida Power & Light, he said.
If your power goes out, Silagy advised residents to keep their refrigerator doors closed to keep food for longer; if you have well water, make sure you have enough fresh water on hand as the pump will not work without power; and to always use a portable generator outdoors, as carbon monoxide poisoning is extremely dangerous.
Silagy noted that the company’s investment of several hundred million dollars in storm hardening has improved restoration times, but that “there is no such thing as a hurricane-proof electrical grid.”
“There will be damage to the grid. If a large oak tree falls over, it will take out a concrete pole just as much as it will take out a wood pole. It may actually rip up underground lines as well, when you see these big root balls go over the sides of the house itself,” he said. “But the storm hardening has saved many days’ worth of power outages during storms, and then importantly it actually makes a difference every single day.”
Hannah Morse covers consumer issues for The Palm Beach Post. Drop a line at hmorse@pbpost.com, call 561-820-4833 or follow her on Twitter @mannahhorse.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Hurricane Ian: Expect 'challenges in the days ahead,' says FPL chief
