(Photo: Gulf Power reports that more than 6,000 lineworkers and support personnel are working to rebuild and repair the system after Hurricane Michael. Credit: Gulf Power on Twitter)Hurricane Michael, dubbed a “history-making monster” by the South Florida Sun Sentinel, left approximately 2.5 million electricity customers in the southeast without power. As of Monday morning, the Edison Electric Institute reported that electricity had been restored to all but around 241,000.
Michael made landfall October 10 on the Florida Panhandle as a Category 4 storm with winds blasting at over 150 mph. The EEI said that most outages were initially in Florida as well as Virginia and North Carolina, which is still reeling from Hurricane Florence. Customers also lost power in Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina.
“Electric companies mobilized an army of more than 35,000 workers from at least 27 states and Canada to restore power safely and as quickly as possible,” the EEI said in a recent update. “Affected electric companies and their restoration partners continue to work around the clock to restore power where it is safe and conditions allow.”
Gulf Power serves 457,125 customers in eight counties. The utility announced that as of Monday morning their crews had restored power to approximately 62,000 customers, which includes 95% in Panama City Beach. CNN reported that Hurricane Michael destroyed most of the city.
Shortly after the hurricane made landfall, Duke Energy announced that their crews used helicopters, drones, boats, trucks, and foot patrols to assess damage to parts of the company’s electric system on the Florida Panhandle. About 77,700 Duke Energy customers lost power during the storm, but only about 14,800 customers remained without power on Sunday afternoon.
The utility company prepared for the hurricane by ensuring adequate staff, supplies, and equipment at coal ash storage sites in North Carolina, a spokesman told Bloomberg. Flooding from Florence last month prompted a plant shutdown and raised concerns about coal ash spilling into an adjacent river. Environmentalists and North Carolina regulators continue to be at odds over whether coal ash, a byproduct of power production, actually fouled waterways, Bloomberg reported in early October.
Overall damage from Hurricane Michael is still being assessed. At least 19 deaths have been attributed to the storm. High winds and a significant storm surge damaged numerous structures, including commercial ones. A catastrophe modeling firm told Insurance Journal that the estimated insurance losses from the hurricane will likely be close to $8 billion.
