After a night of restoring power in icy winter conditions, Gulf Power Company crews will get reinforcements from sister companies Alabama Power and Mississippi Power to help restore electricity in the areas hardest hit by the winter storm.

“Our crews will be working all day to restore power as quickly and safely as they can,” said Jeff Rogers, Corporate Communications manager. “Even so, there may be some customers whose power will not be restored today, so they should prepare to be without power tonight. But crews will continue to work through the night until everyone’s power is back on.”
 
As of 10 a.m., 6,500 Gulf Power customers remain without power and crews continue to work safely to finish restoration from Pensacola to Panama City.
 
Gulf Power started seeing power outages yesterday around 1 p.m. Since then, a total of 41,845 customers have lost power. As of 7 a.m. today, Gulf Power crews had restored power to 35,000 of those customers.  
 
“Our crews worked safely throughout the night in terrible conditions to restore power,” said Jeff Rogers, Corporate Communications manager. “We thank our customers for their patience as we continue to work to get their power back on.”
 
Rogers asked customers who have lost power to help by going to their thermostat and turning their heating unit off. When their power is restored, he asked that customers wait 10 minutes before turning their heater back on. “Turning off heat temporarily at the thermostat helps us manage our load and restore power more quickly to more customers,” Rogers said. “The bottom line is customers can get their power back on faster when we don’t have the extra demand from heating units.”

UPDATE- Gulf Power customer office hours:
Pensacola - 418 W. Garden St., Pensacola, FL – Closed Wednesday, Jan. 29.
Milton - 5120 Dogwood Dr., Milton, FL– Closed Wednesday, Jan. 29.
Fort Walton Beach - 140 Hollywood Blvd SW, Ft Walton Beach, FL – Offices open today at noon.
Crestview - 1655 S Ferdon Blvd., Crestview, FL – Closed Wednesday, Jan. 29.
Niceville - 1057 E John Sims Pkwy., Niceville, FL – Closed Wednesday, Jan. 29.
DeFuniak Springs - 1226 Circle Dr., DeFuniak Springs, FL – Closed Wednesday, Jan. 29. 
Panama City - 1230 E 15th St., Panama City, FL - Closed Wednesday, Jan. 29.
Chipley - 1195 Jackson Ave., Chipley, FL - Closed Wednesday, Jan. 29.
All office hours are subject to change based on weather conditions.
 
Representatives in the Customer Care Center are ready 24/7 to assist customers. Just call 800-225-5797.
 
Customers can view an online outage map by computer, smartphone or tablet on MyGulfPower.com to report or check on an outage. They also can check their power usage on MyGulfPower.com by logging into their account. Customers can create an account online or call the Customer Care Center and a representative will help. Customer Care Center: 1-800-225-5797.

Gulf Power Company is an investor-owned electric utility with all of its common stock owned by Atlanta-based Southern Company. Gulf Power serves more than 436,000 customers in eight counties throughout Northwest Florida. The company’s mission is to safely provide exceptional customer value by delivering reliable, affordable and environmentally responsible electricity while strengthening our communities. Visit online at GulfPower.com or on the company’s Facebook page, “Gulf Power Company.”

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Media Contacts:
Jeff Rogers
Corporate Communications Manager
850-444-6243, cell 850-572-5511

Gordon Paulus
Communication Specialist - Media Relations
850-444-6320, cell 850-336-0044