Flagler County has an unhappy history of finding itself near the bottom of the list of counties to have their power restored in previous hurricanes. That may yet again be the case in the wake of Hurricane Ian’s devastation as more populous counties get attention first.
Efforts to restore power will also be affected by Hurricane Ian’s expected slow crawl across Florida after an anticipated Gulf Coast landfall on Wednesday, Florida Power & Light President & CEO Eric Silagy cautioned Tuesday.
For Flagler County, that means a likely slower restoration of lost power that may evoke FPL’s halting response in Palm Coast and the rest of the county in the post-Matthew and Irma days.
In 2017, Hurricane Irma knocked out more than 90 percent of Flagler customers’ power. It was a week or more before full restoration as Palm Coast and the county went days without seeing so much as a few utility trucks at work. The company had focused its 21,500 workers on restoring power in more heavily damaged areas to the south. (See “FPL Lies.”)
FPL also overpromised restoration in the wake of Hurricane Matthew in 2016, leaving thousands without power days after the storm passed.
“They will always go to the highest priorities first,” Flagler County Emergency Management Chief Jonathan Lord said on Tuesday. “Even within our county, they prioritize certain kinds of facilities, like the hospital, like critical facilities, fire stations, police stations. Things like that. We do have a great partnership with FPL. They will be in the Emergency Operations Center with us for the duration, and we will help prioritize those areas with them. But they cover a large swath of the state, they are by far the overwhelming majority power provider in the state, they’re probably going to have impacts in many, many areas of their service territory. But having that relationship, having them in the EOC with us, will help us share that information, see what is happening to our community and help us to appropriately prioritize.”
FPL, the largest utility in the state, has nearly 16,000 workers in 24 staging areas, Silagy said in a conference call with reporters. Still, Silagy said there will be “challenges in the days ahead,” with ground saturated from past rain and anticipated storm surges and flooding.
Hurricane Ian was preparing to make landfall as just short of a Category 5 hurricane midday Wednesday, somewhere in Charlotte County. At last report at 8 a.m. Wednesday, its sustained winds had strengthened to 155 miles per hour, just 2 miles per hour short of the Category 5 designation–and ample time for the hurricane, fueled by the Gulf’s warm waters, to reach that threshold by the time it hits land.
“This is a very slow-moving storm. It is predicted to slow down as it approaches Florida, and then when it makes landfall to continue to be very slow as it moves across the state,” Silagy said. “That means that, again, there’ll be significant amounts of rainfall, storm-surge flooding, and of course, trees being battered by winds for many, many hours in a row, which unfortunately means a lot of them are likely to go over and cause outages.”
Silagy said it could take 24 hours to determine how long restoration efforts will take. “We have to understand what damage has been done, whether or not it is a restoration or in some cases whether or not we actually have to rebuild part of the system, which, unfortunately because of the strength and the size of the storm, is likely to be the case in some pockets,” Silagy said.
Meanwhile, Tampa Electric Co. is considering pre-emptively interrupting service to areas of downtown Tampa to “avoid serious damage” to underground equipment from saltwater storm surge. “This will significantly shorten restoration time after the storm,” the company said in a news release.
“Tampa Electric has communicated with affected customers to minimize the inconvenience. The affected area is under a mandatory evacuation order.” Tampa Electric has about 3,000 workers from a dozen states poised to help restore power after the storm passes, the company said. Gov. Ron DeSantis said Tuesday the projected path of the storm cutting across the state means interior counties will “absolutely see power outages,” along with flooding and wind damage.
Hurricane Ian knocked out power across Cuba when it passed over the western edge of the country, leaving 11 million people in the dark. Today outages affecting thousands of Floridians were already reported in Hillsborough, Manatee and Sarasota counties as convoys of utility trucks were converging on the swath of the state about to be struck by Hurricane Ian. But those early outages are certain to be overwhelmed by cascades of power losses rising to the millions of customers by day’s end, and rising further after that.
–FlaglerLive and News Service of Florida
Coughlin Daniel says
If the power does go out, I hope FPL gets our power back on quickly. We have 2 people in our household that uses OXYGEN. I’m sure there are many in the same situation. Good luck 🍀 to all that are effected by the Hurricane IAN. Been here 5 years & so far been lucky.
Nancy N. says
The Irma response was abominable. A single tree on a single power line kept hundreds of homes in our part of the B section out of power for over FIVE DAYS. It was ridiculous.
Jimbo99 says
Makes sense, but it depends upon how the Biden-Harris group sends FEMA disaster relief to FL, what the infrastructure situation is I-95 & I-4 are as vital to FL as I-75. But yeah, Tampa/St Pete would be a priority for restoration. Jacksonville, Daytona Beach & Orlando are reasons to be higher priority as well. To get to Tampa & further south Gulf Coast from this side, I-95 & I-4 are quicker & easier power restorations for lighter damages, why drive past Palm Coast/Flagler to get to Cape Coral/Ft Myers ? We shall see what Biden-Harris supply shortages & inflation are problematic ? All of this is influenced by the energy policy of the last 1.75 years. Biden will be releasing even more of Trump’s fossil fuel reserve.
Gary says
That is not fair. We have a lot of older people that need power for medical equipment to stay alive. You charge Flager residents more then others. You claimed a few years back you have a special building to house your workers in Flagler. Well the work is here first. Not other counties first.
Sick of FPL says
Why would FPL not restore power to smaller cities? It seems logical to get the quick fixes done first and have others working on larger areas at the same time. The Governor says there are 30,000 FPL workers on standby. Why do we have to suffer for several weeks? My neighborhood is always the last to get power back. It Socks. I’ve never seen a more unorganized state in my life. Get it together Flori-daa!
Alphonse Abonte says
The closer you live to a hospital, the faster power is restored.
Merrill S Shapiro says
Naturally, if we are getting no electricity from FPL we aren’t paying anything. But, even if we do not pay for electricity we are still charged and paying a “base charge.”
FPL makes it nearly impossible to determine how much these charges are, but I think we can all take concerted action to annoy FPL by asking them for an itemized bill. Then, I would think, we would be in our rights to withhold 10% or our payment of these charges if we are without electricity for 3 days, 20% if we are without electricity for 6 days, etc.
According to FPL at https://www.fpl.com/rates/pdf/residential-explanation.pdf,
base charges cover: A fixed monthly amount to cover the cost of the meter,
billing and providing customer service. It is applicable whether or not
electricity is used in a given month.
Fuel charge* includes: The cost for fuel required to provide each kilowatthour (kWh) of electricity.
Non-fuel charge* includes:
» Base energy charge: The costs other than fuel to produce and deliver
electricity, including the cost of operating power plants and maintaining
the grid.
» Energy Conservation Cost Recovery (ECCR) Charge:
Cost of programs designed to reduce electric demand and
consumption.
» Capacity Cost Recovery Clause (CCRC): Cost for purchasing
electricity from non-FPL owned resources as well as certain nuclearrelated expenses.
» Environmental Cost Recovery Clause (ECRC):
Cost to meet environmental laws and regulations.
» Storm Protection Plan Cost Recovery Clause (SPPCRC): Cost to
strengthen the grid in order to reduce restoration costs and outage
times during major storms, as well as improving day-to-day service
reliability.
» Transition Credit: Addresses difference in costs to serve FPL and
former Gulf Power customers in a reasonable manner for all customers.
Transition credit will decline to zero over a five-year period, fully aligning
rates by Jan. 1, 2027.
Gross receipts tax and Regulatory
assessment fee*: FPL pays a tax equal to
2.6% of gross electric and operating revenues
to the state and the Florida Public Service
Commission.
Other taxes and fees: Vary by area, as
established by local governing bodies. FPL
collects these costs for distribution to the
appropriate entities.
» Franchise charge*: FPL competes with
municipalities and county governments
for the right to serve electric customers. If
a local government chooses, it can enter
into a contract with FPL that enables
the government to charge residents a
contractual amount, the franchise fee, in
exchange for its agreement to not form an
electric utility for the term of the franchise.
» Utility/municipal tax*: A tax imposed by a
municipality or county government on the
sale of electricity
America First81 says
AfterHurricane Ian has passed and the Recovery Starts, will Rep Mikie (Waldo) Waltz finally visit the FL District 6 OR will he continue to be on Fox News Promoting the Ukraine War and his ( “I am a HERO”) book?
Fran says
I have a pace maker. My heart machine is connected to a hard line phone.
Jane Gentile-Youd says
Hey Merrill – If I have a vote on the county commission I will propose that Flagler County do away with the ‘municipal tax’ charged – which I believe we pay in Flagler County. That should save us all a few dollars a month .
Nephew of Uncle Sam says
I seriously doubt he would visit unless it’s for a photo-op and to let you know how he supports all of the House Bills that help Florida residents and his constituents that he has voted NO for.
Bob J says
Pretty much like Palm Coast Utility
Joe D says
Hospitals, police stations, fire stations, nursing homes are the priority. Then reconnections that are simple “line down” reconnections (not blown or damaged transformers, or damaged sub-stations). Then they look at which reconnections are going to bring the most people back on line…..then expect physical access to the customers as the next reconsideration ( this is going to be the BIGGEST problem post Ian). This was not simply wind damage, this was flood water infrastructure damage. I’m afraid it’s not going to be a simple fix. I have a portable solar battery “generator “ along with folding solar recharging panels (also portable) from ECOFLOW ( but there are other brands out there), which will run my fridge and freezer for 18-24 hours on the battery and then (once the sun is back out) cycle enough to run those 2 appliances 24/7…which is usually your biggest outage concern
If you have medical equipment concerns, you should definitely consider it. These storms are getting stronger AND more frequent
Denali says
FEMA has absolutely nothing to do with determining the order of electrical power restoration after a hurricane. Those decisions are made by the utility companies based on the actual extent of the damage, whether repairs or re-builds are required and available resources (crews, truck, wire, poles and transformers). They will make all the easiest repairs first and then move on to rebuilding as necessary. FEMA and the administration do not control these decisions.
Joseph Barand says
All those Climate Deniers are trying to kill you, but I’ll bet you still vote Republican. If you want to live vote BLUE.
Laurel says
Holy cow, what a lot of whining! A lot of people here are seriously spoiled. I never though I’d be sticking up for FPL, but I can’t believe how soft some people are here. If you have medical problems that require electricity, consider a different state, evacuate when told to or have equipment ready to service your machines. If you cannot tolerate being without electricity simply because you’re used to it, consider a different state and good luck.
If you spell Florida “Floridaaa” or “Floriduh,” you’re from somewhere else. Consider going home.
There are plenty of utility trucks from here and out of state, but they cannot simply go out in a hurricane and start making repairs. Bridges are closed at around 36 mph winds. Some roads need to be cleared of debris and water before passing through. They do have to prioritize, isn’t that logical? Electric companies are responding faster now than they ever have. Growing up in Ft. Lauderdale, I’m very used to watching transformers blow up all over town, and being without electricity for several days. Big deal. Be grateful your house, car or boat didn’t float away. Be grateful you’re still alive. Do you know how lucky you are that the temperature was in the 60’s? Find something to do. We did a jigsaw puzzle, and the electricity was back on before we finished.
The Geode says
…and then let a “recently released” criminal come and steal your phone and probably your pacemaker if it’s worth more than $20