Hurricane Idalia is expected to bring strong winds, torrential rain, flooding and storm surge, which all will likely cause power outages.
Major utility companies in Florida are making their final preparations in advance of the storm.
“Duke Energy has employees that their full-time job is storm preparation,” Duke Energy spokesman Lee Freedman said., “So, 52 weeks out of the year, they're preparing for a storm like this. Throughout hurricane season, we make sure we have plenty of materials on hand. So I'm talking about power poles, wires, transformers, everything we'll need to restore power after a storm.”
The company has mobilized additional help from outside of Florida in advance of the storm. Speaking at a Tuesday news briefing in St. Petersburg, Duke spokesman Jeff Baker said 4,500 line crews and other personnel are on hand and ready to get power restored as soon as possible. Baker said crews cannot physically start repairing downed lines until sustained winds are under 35 miles an hour.
"We have sister utilities in the Midwest ... Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky. Line workers, tree trimmers, so in total we'll have about 5,000 workers here," Freedman said. "We're going to bus them to hotels, they're going to get a good night's sleep and then once the storm passes and the conditions are safe, they're going to start assessing damage and restoring power in the morning."
Baker said Duke will be getting assistance from its smart grid technology. In some cases, that can digitally help the grid to heal itself.
"In past storms we have seen significant advantages. I know in the last major storm we had we had over 3.3 million minutes of interruptions that did not occur because of that smart grid technology," Baker said.
Florida Power and Light and Tampa Electric have also mobilized crews throughout the state, with TECO saying they have about 3,000 workers ready to respond following the storm.
Freedman said anyone who loses power can disconnect any nonessential electrical equipment so circuits don't overload when power is restored.
Power companies said fallen trees can delay restoration efforts and that customers should stay away from downed lines.
Customers can download the Duke Energy app on their phones to report if their power is out and to see a map of current outages.
