FPL: Workforce Of More Than 19,000 From 30 States Working To Restore Power
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MIAMI (CBSMiami) – Florida Power & Light says they don't have a timeline as to when you can expect to have your power back on because crews are still making an assessment of damages. However, they say they have crews working 24/7 to get everyone's power back up and running.
Hundreds of thousands of people remain without electricity in South Florida as the state deals with the largest statewide outage within the last few decades.
"We have about 65 percent of the state out without power," said Florida Gov. Rick Scott during a news conference. "It's going to take us a long time to get power back. I've been talking to the utilities. I'm having daily calls from the utility to get the power back on."
Dozens upon dozens of FPL trucks were seen at the staging area at Gulfstream Park as workers embarked on a mission to restore power.
"We have a restoration workforce of more than 19,000 personnel from 30 different states and they're all working throughout our service territory trying to restore power," said Florida Power & Light spokesman Richard Gibbs.
The company has spent billions on infrastructure investments and those without power are upset they've been left in the dark.
"It's very aggravating. You hear all the commercials and all the talk of the work they've done and here we stand right now without power," said Brian Bramblett, who lost electricity at his Palmetto Bay home.
"Hurricanes are an incredible force of nature and what you're looking at is a situation where we haven't had this type of impact to the state in probably decades," said Gibbs.
Although FPL says they don't have a timeline as to when you can expect to have your power back on, they say if you live near a hospital, a police station or a fire station you can expect to have your power back on sooner rather than later because those places have priority. Once those critical places get their power back on, people in the area also get their electricity back.
