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Gulf Power crews at the ready to restore power in Panama City area
With Subtropical Storm Alberto bearing down on the Gulf Coast, Gulf Power is focusing crews and resources on the Panama City area for the possibility of an early Monday morning landfall. If Panama City and the surrounding areas are impacted, as soon as it’s safe to work, crews are prepared to begin restoring power. “Gulf Power continues to monitor the storm and changing weather, with additional resources being sent toward the Panama City area, ready to ensure timely and safe power restoration,” said Jeff Rogers, Gulf Power spokesperson. “With tropical force winds, rain and flooding projected across the area, customers should be prepared for the possibility of losing power for an extended period of time. With additional resources coming in from other areas we serve, our priority is to get the lights back on as quickly and safely as possible.” Gulf Power has been closely monitoring Alberto since before it became a disturbance in the Gulf of Mexico and is maintaining a watch on the storm’s path. The storm is expected to bring the threat of heavy rain and flash flooding to a large area of Northwest Florida. Once the storm passes, Gulf Power crews will evaluate any damage to the energy grid, and work to quickly and safely restore power. If additional resources are needed, Gulf Power has extra backing and resources from Georgia Power, Alabama Power and Mississippi Power should they be needed. Even though Gulf Power’s customers haven’t experienced a major storm in more than 10 years, the energy provider’s crews have had plenty of storm restoration practice — they’ve traveled more than 40 times to 14 different states since 2008, assisting in power restoration efforts. “Our teams rapidly deployed to restore power when tropical force winds from Irma knocked out service to 13,000 customers in the Panama City area, and again during Hurricane Nate when we restored more than 38,000 outages in 24 hours. We train year-round for these types of a scenarios and deploy crews to different areas across the Southeast to help others restore power. That training and developing of skills has really paid off in helping us quickly and safely get our customers’ power back on.” Customers can get more storm preparation information on the Gulf Power Storm Ready Center webpage. How customers can connect with us:
### About Gulf Power News Media Contacts: Rick DelaHaya Kimberly Blair Gordon Paulus Jeff Rogers |