FPL Aided By Drones To Restore Power To Residents in South Dade

WLRN Public Media | By KYRA GURNEY

Published September 11, 2017 at 4:34 PM EDT

A Shell gas station sign fell Sunday at the corner of Northwest 36th Street and Biscayne Boulevard.

Florida Power and Light contractors worked to restore power to a neighborhood in Southwest Miami-Dade County on Monday afternoon. As two workers repaired a main power line damaged by a fallen tree, a third flew a drone overhead to take photos and assess the damage.

So far, FPL has restored power to 200,000 customers in Miami-Dade. They have another 800,000 to go, said spokeswoman Florencia Contesse. In Broward County, electricity has been restored to 168,000 customers, but another 630,000 are still in the dark, Contesse said.

Efforts to restore power started even while the storm was battering South Florida, with workers venturing out between bands of weather, Contesse said. Some Miami-Dade residents could have electricity back in a matter of days, while others may have to wait weeks, she said.

“We’re continuing to assess the damage,” Contesse said. “This was a pretty severe hurricane for us.”

Read more at our news partner, The Miami Herald.