JUNO BEACH, Fla., Sept. 14 /PRNewswire/ -- Late today as winds and storm
feeder bands began to diminish in southeast and southwest Florida, Florida
Power & Light Company began deploying its manpower and resources to staging
sites in hard-hit regions to begin assessing damage and restoring service.
(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20010621/FPLLOGO )
Progress was made in restoring service today and by late evening about
375,000 FPL customers' homes and businesses remained without power as a result
of Tropical Storm Gabrielle's destructive pass through Florida. Approximately
300,000 customers were without service in the counties FPL serves on Florida's
west coast and about 75,000 in counties FPL serves in northeast Florida.
FPL said it has approximately 7,000 employees and contract workers
involved in restoration efforts. Many of those workers joined convoys headed
for staging sites at the Sarasota Fairgrounds and in North Port at the Toledo
Blade Service Center. As the storm exits FPL's east coast, the need for
staging sites and additional resources in northeast Florida will also be
assessed.
"We care about two things as we look at the work ahead of us this
weekend -- the safety of our workers and the safety of customers," said
Armando Olivera, FPL senior vice president of power systems. "We want to get
everyone's power back with as little inconvenience as possible, and as quickly
as possible. In that respect damage assessment will be one of our top
priorities at daybreak."
FPL continues to urge customers to be extremely careful after the
storm -- particularly after dark. Stay away from any dangling wires or downed
poles and do 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).
FPL said that customers who have called to report an outage do not need to
report it again. FPL will do its best to keep customers updated on
restoration plans via the news media and its "Storm Center" site at
http://www.fpl.com.
As of 10 p.m. Friday, outages by county were:
Southwest Florida Northeast/Central Florida
Collier - 10,000 Brevard - 15,000
Lee - 22,500 Seminole - 5,000
Charlotte - 30,000 Volusia -- 30,000
DeSoto - 2,500 Flagler -- 5,000
Manatee - 105,000 Putnam - 5,000
Sarasota - 130,000 St. Johns - 15,000
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/comp/319763.html
CONTACT:
Corporate Communications of Florida Power &
Light Company, +1-305-552-3888
NOTE TO EDITORS: Outage maps are available by calling corporate
communications media relations at 305-552-3888
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