FPL and other power companies have deployed more than 25,000 linemen and 27,000 power restoration personnel across the state.
John Raoux/AP Photo

FPL and other power companies have deployed more than 25,000 linemen and 27,000 power restoration personnelacross the state to begin restoration and rebuilding efforts once the storm has cleared. FPL alone has 19,000 workers in place, Silagy said.

Utilities say it’s still too soon to know how long it will take to fully restore power. It took the Louisiana Gulf Coast weeks to recover from the violent winds of Hurricane Ida last year, despite billions of dollars spent on grid hardening. Silagy compared Ian to 2004’s Hurricane Charley, another Category 4 storm that struck Southwest Florida and sliced across the state, after which power was not restored to thousands of customers for weeks. (Ian, though, has a much wider footprint.)

Power executives emphasized that power cannot be restored — and rebuilding cannot happen — until the storm subsides and workers can safely begin repairing electrical lines and other critical equipment.

In that sense, a faster moving storm may be better for restoration times, said Ditto, versus slow-moving storms that linger for days.

“The faster it goes away then frankly the better because then you can get out there and do your job to restore power or do other damage assessments and restoration in other areas as well,” she said.

Silagy asked customers to be prepared “for extended power outages” and recommended thatolder customers or others who may struggle without power for a lengthy amount of time to “take an assessment of their own needs.”

He also warned that some homes or businesses or neighborhoods may see longer periods of outages depending on the damage.

“There will be many, many instances where it is simply not safe to re-energize a home or business because it has been structurally damaged,” he said.