Thousands Left Without Power As EREC, FPL Crews Work Into The Night

June 16, 2023

Storms that moved through the area Friday morning left thousands without power.

Florida Power & Light reported 1,825 customers in Escambia County without power as of 9 p.m., down by several thousand from earlier in the day. FPL did have a restoration timeline available.

Escambia River Electric Cooperative reported over 6,500 customers without power in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties — approaching over half of their meters — after the morning storms.

By 9 p.m. EREC reported about 1,100 members without power as they continue to work around the clock. EREC said there are additional concerns as more storms move toward the area Friday night. Additional contract crews have arrived to help in the restoration process.

EREC explained how power is restored:

In order to restore power to the largest number of members as quickly and safely as possible…

  1. EREC crews assess damages to ensure sections of line are completely free of debris before determining how to proceed.
  2. Work is performed on substations and major feeder lines to maximize efficiency.
  3. Critical facilities such as hospitals, communication hubs, police and fire stations are restored.
  4. EREC crews rebuild and restore power lines and delivery equipment mile by mile until every member has access to power.

Pictured above and immediately below: Power poles and power lines on the EREC system hang just above the ground and very near Highway 97 near Pelt Road Friday morning. Pictured bottom: Many of the outages were also caused by downed lines like this one on Pine Forest Road near Walnut Hill. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.

Comments

14 Responses to “Thousands Left Without Power As EREC, FPL Crews Work Into The Night”

  1. RandallLucas on June 18th, 2023 11:53 am

    Thanks to all of you guys and gals that keep our electricity on..

  2. Joni on June 17th, 2023 9:48 pm

    @sam it’s not always affordable for someone to buy a generator. If it were that cheap and easy, I’m sure everyone would have one.

  3. sam on June 17th, 2023 9:26 am

    people are so spoiled. buy a stand by generator if you can’t wait. at some point everybody is without power. mother nature will test you.

  4. Tt on June 17th, 2023 9:04 am

    8:00 am still no power. They came out took the tree off the line. That’s it. All my food gone to waste. And just bought them. What can they do about that. Booker lane in cantonment.

  5. judy on June 17th, 2023 8:19 am

    Praying for the safety of the crews as they work to restore power!

  6. McDavid on June 17th, 2023 8:06 am

    Going on 25 hours no power. Losing everything refrigerated and freezer.

  7. Dawn flores on June 17th, 2023 3:22 am

    Still no power on Lambert brg

  8. Dawn flores on June 17th, 2023 3:21 am

    Lambert brg still no power

  9. Lindsey Brown on June 17th, 2023 12:00 am

    We going on 15 hours without no power down here deer lake I’ve got a mother on oxygen and running low on gas for my generator any suggestions what I should do e r e c

  10. Rick Lester on June 16th, 2023 10:07 pm

    No power in Mcdavid Florida

  11. Rick Lester on June 16th, 2023 9:32 pm

    8:31 pm still no power at hwy 164.

  12. McDavid on June 16th, 2023 9:04 pm

    800 and still no electric

  13. McDavid on June 16th, 2023 8:06 pm

    7:06 PM AND STILL WITHOUT POWER

  14. Sharon Lee on June 16th, 2023 5:08 pm

    we are out of power and have a tree on power lines on Pine Forest Rd. Walnut hill Fl.

Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News