“Thousands” of power line workers are heading to Florida ahead of Hurricane Helen, which could make landfall as a Category 3 or higher storm.
“We're with TECO Energy in Tampa,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said at a press conference Wednesday morning, “They've got a lot of power line workers in place in preparation for the coming storm, and we continue to have thousands of power line workers flowing into the state.”
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“They're rallying and, of course, once the storm has passed, they'll start working to restore power. We expect some power outages so you have an opportunity to plan for that,” DeSantis said, before the National Hurricane Center's 11 a.m. forecast officially declared Helene a hurricane and warned of widespread impacts.
“As the center of Helene moves inland, devastating hurricane-force winds are expected across parts of northern Florida and southern Georgia,” the NHC warned.
“Helene's expected rapid movement is expected to bring destructive and life-threatening wind gusts into parts of the interior of the southeastern United States, including the highlands of the southern Appalachian Mountains,” the report continues.
“We're proud to be at TECO, and we know Floridians really appreciated seeing trucks with power line workers coming into the state before the hurricane, and then we're pleased that as soon as the storm passed, people were out and about trying to restore power as quickly as possible, although that's not the case in every state in the country,” DeSantis said at the press conference, noting that TECO power companies are acting proactively but are also talking to other companies.
“I've been talking to all the electric cooperatives, the municipal cooperatives, all the rest of them,” he said. “They're all fully committed.”
DeSantis said his team and Florida Department of Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie “mobilized significant resources.”
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Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office/TMX
“They are responding to requests from counties for everything from vehicles to tarps to generators and even additional personnel,” he said.
“As I said, we have thousands of power line workers coming into the state. I think we reached 18,000 yesterday. That number will continue to grow today,” the governor added.
DeSantis is no stranger to hurricane preparedness, and his team's impressive response has been widely heralded over the years, including mobilizing tens of thousands of power line workers to quickly build bridges and restore power after devastating storms.
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