Florida Power & Light and Lee County Electric Cooperative are preparing for widespread outages as Milton comes closer to the west coast.
FPL Spokesperson Mike Mazur says that the company is equipped for the large number of outages with a workforce of around 17,000 on standby.
“That workforce number includes FPL crews, as long as teams from 40 different states as far as California.”
In the event that someone loses power, Mazur stresses to not touch breakers or attempt to interfere with power.
Karen Ryan with Lee County Electric Cooperative said that for the sake of resource management, refrain from calling the company when out of power, as they likely already know. Those on well water will be unable to run water, as pumps need electricity to function.
FPL will not have to juggle Helene and Milton relief at the same time, according to CEO Armando Pimentel. The only FPL houses without power are ones that are severely damaged from the late September storm.
“Helene relief for us is pretty much done, I would say it is completely done, but there are certainly some houses that do not have electricity yet from Helene,” Pimentel said.
Both FPL and LCEC emphasize the importance of not interfering with downed lines, and to avoid being electrocuted, not entering floodwaters.
Power outage reports started filtering in Wednesday as soon as Milton's wind ramped up.
Initially reporting small numbers, by 3 p.m. Florida Power & Light said it had more than 20,000 spread out over Lee, Collier, Charlotte, Glades, Hendry, DeSoto, Sarasota and Manatee counties.
Lee County bore the brunt of the winds, with more than 10,700 without power. Manatee was next with more than 7,700 powerless.
FPL had been already working and noted that more than 12,000 customers had been restored by 3 p.m.
The Lee County Electric Cooperative listed 3,438 outages in Collier and Lee counties combined.
More outages were expected as Milton inched closer to Southwest Florida’s coast Wednesday.
Dozens of utility crews were being staged at Jet Blue Park off Colonial Boulevard in anticipation of the more major parts of the storm yet to hit land.
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