JUNO BEACH, Fla., Sept. 14 /PRNewswire/ -- Florida Power & Light Company
this afternoon said Tropical Storm Gabrielle has left more than 400,000 homes
and businesses without power. Gabriele delivered a punch to Florida's west
coast under cover of darkness early this morning then spent most of the
daylight hours downing tree limbs and dumping rain on a wide area of the
state.
(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20010621/FPLLOGO)
Even through the storm is diminishing in strength as it exits the east
coast, FPL believes that outage number may go higher before the storm leaves
the east coast late tonight or early tomorrow.
"We understand how much our customers depend on electricity to carry out
their responsibilities and get through their day," said Armando Olivera, FPL
senior vice president of power systems. "We ask our customers patience while
we restore full electric service as quickly as we can."
Gabrielle's winds reached the upper range of "Tropical Storm" force limits
and took a wide, destructive path through FPL's service territory. The
scattered outages make restoration time-consuming for workers who must restore
service virtually one customer at a time. "We intend to deploy all resources
necessary to minimize the inconvenience to our customers," Mr. Olivera said.
FPL has approximately 7,000 employees and contract workers in the field or
in support positions ready to begin restoration efforts as soon as safety
permits. Restoration efforts in some cases are still being hampered by high
winds and flooding on the west coast.
FPL continues to urge customers to be extremely careful after the storm
and stay away from any dangling wires or downed poles and not to walk into
standing water. If you see any sparking wires or downed lines or to report an
outage, please call 1-800-4OUTAGE (1-800-468-8243).
As of 4 p.m. Friday, outages by county were:
Brevard - 10,000 Charlotte - 40,000 Collier - 12,500
DeSoto - 2,500 Lee -- 55,000 Manatee - 115,000
Sarasota - 150,000 Seminole - 5,000 Volusia - 10,000
SOURCE Florida Power & Light Company
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Related links:
http://www.fpl.com
Photo Notes:http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20010621/FPLLOGO
AP Archive: http://photoarchive.ap.org
PRN Photo Desk, 888-776-6555 or 212-782-2840
Company News On-Call:
http://www.prnewswire.com/gh/cnoc/comp/319763.html
CONTACT:
Florida Power & Light Company, Corporate
Communications, Media Line, +1-305-552-3888
EDITOR'S ADVISORY: Maps by county available by calling Corporate
Communications.
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