JUNO BEACH, Fla. -- As Hurricane Ian strengthens on its path toward Florida, Florida Power & Light Company is making final preparations to restore service safely and as quickly as possible after what is forecast to be a damaging storm.
The latest forecast track from the National Hurricane Center, issued at 11 a.m., continues to show a likely Florida landfall, with tropical storm-force winds arriving in portions of the state as soon as Tuesday afternoon or evening and potentially lasting through Friday evening.
In addition to damaging winds, Ian has the potential to bring heavy rains, storm surge and flooding that may slow access for crews restoring power after the storm. FPL is continuing to prepare for widespread outages stretching over multiple days due to the slow-moving storm. The company is urging customers throughout the state to monitor news and weather reports and complete preparations. FPL also reminds customers not to focus on the “centerline” path of the storm, as this often shifts and treacherous conditions are likely to extend far beyond Ian’s center.
“As this storm approaches Florida, we know our customers are counting on us and we are determined to meet this challenge,” said Eric Silagy, chairman and CEO of FPL. “We are mobilizing and pre-positioning our restoration workforce, so these brave men and women can quickly start working as soon as it is safe to do so. We have more than 13,000 personnel dedicated to the effort and we are making sure we’re ready to respond, regardless of Ian’s final path. We’re urging customers to finalize their preparations and make safety their top priority.”
What FPL is doing
FPL has activated its emergency response plan, which includes:
- More than 13,000 personnel preparing to support the restoration
- Finalizing logistics for staging sites in the areas most likely to be affected
- Pre-positioning key equipment and supplies
- Coordinating with county and state emergency operations centers on response
As Ian’s outer bands begin to affect customers, FPL will restore power as long as it’s safe to do so. During the storm, FPL will use smart grid technology to remotely restore power to customers where possible. Immediately following the hurricane, once winds drop below 35 miles per hour, FPL will continue restoration and conduct damage assessments with field crews. These assessments, which include data gathered from a fleet of drones, help us assign the right resources to each geographical region and give customers an accurate estimate of when we will complete restoration in each region.
Additional resources
Customers can download the FPL app for on-the-go, instant and secure access to their accounts. Customers can report or get the latest information on an outage. The app is available for download in the iOS App Store and Google Play. To quickly download the FPL app, text the word “App” to MyFPL (69375). Customers also can sign up for storm updates by texting the word “Join” to MyFPL (69375).
How to stay informed
FPL communicates restoration information to customers frequently through the news media and the following resources:
- FPL website: FPL.com
- Twitter: twitter.com/insideFPL
- Facebook: facebook.com/FPLconnect
- FPL Power Tracker: FPL.com/powertracker
- FPL Power Tracker (Northwest Florida): FPL.com/mypowertracker
- FPL app: Download from the App Store or Google Play, or text the word “App” to MyFPL (69375)
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Florida Power & Light Company
As America’s largest electric utility, Florida Power & Light Company serves more customers and sells more power than any other utility, providing clean, affordable, reliable electricity to approximately 5.8 million accounts, or more than 12 million people. FPL operates one of the cleanest power generation fleets in the U.S. and in 2021 won the ReliabilityOne® National Reliability Award for the sixth time in the last seven years. The company received the top ranking in the southern U.S. among large electric providers, according to J.D. Power’s 2021 Electric Utility Residential Customer Satisfaction StudySM and 2021 Electric Utility Business Customer Satisfaction StudySM. The company was also recognized in 2020 as one of the most trusted U.S. electric utilities by Escalent for the seventh consecutive year. FPL is a subsidiary of Juno Beach, Florida-based NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE: NEE), a clean energy company widely recognized for its efforts in sustainability, corporate responsibility, ethics and compliance, and diversity. NextEra Energy is ranked No. 1 in the electric and gas utilities industry in Fortune’s 2022 list of “World’s Most Admired Companies” and recognized on Fortune’s 2021 list of companies that “Change the World.” NextEra Energy is also the parent company of NextEra Energy Resources, LLC, which, together with its affiliated entities, is the world’s largest generator of renewable energy from the wind and sun and a world leader in battery storage. For more information about NextEra Energy companies, visit these websites: www.NextEraEnergy.com, www.FPL.com, www.NextEraEnergyResources.com.