In less than 48 hours, crews have restored power to more than 37,235 Gulf Power customers in the wake of Hurricane Michael, and more than 4,400 storm personnel have been mobilized and have already begun working in the hardest hit areas.

“All of our crews are out working and customers will be seeing more bucket trucks in the hardest hit areas,” said Jeff Rogers, Gulf Power spokesperson. “We also have drones and helos in the air today to provide us with more detailed reports of our system by the end of today.”

Hardest Hit Areas

Customers in the hardest hit areas should prepare to be without power for weeks. Gulf Power has not given an estimated restoration time for the hardest hit areas, which include Bay, Holmes, Washington and Jackson counties.
 

• Initial evaluations by Gulf Power indicate widespread, heavy damage to the electrical

• More than 4,000 customers were restored on Panama City Beach Thursday night.

• Planes have patrolled almost 300 miles of Gulf Power transmission corridors to determine the damage.

• Along with 1,000 power poles that are ready to be installed, 800 more will be delivered today.

Other Northwest Florida areas
 

• All storm-related outages in Escambia, Santa Rosa & Okaloosa counties have been restored.

• All storm-related outages in Sandestin/Miramar Beach has been restored.

• All storm-related outages in Ponce de Leon have been fully restored.

• All storm-related outages in DeFuniak Springs have been fully restored.

Current outage total as of 11 a.m. CDT

Crews and resources

Less than 24 hours after the storm, thousands of storm personnel from around the country arrived in the Panama City area Thursday for a total of 4,400 working the restoration and rebuilding process. Gulf Power has seven staging sites for Hurricane Michael restoration crews in our hardest hit areas to house these crews.

“This was an unprecedented storm, and our customers will see an unprecedented response from Gulf Power,” said Rogers.
 

Restoration process
 

Watch How Power is Restored. 

Gulf Power’s process following the storm begins with evaluation teams arriving in smaller trucks that can more easily navigate through debris and damage. Those teams are still working to determine the damage to the Gulf Power grid in Panama City, but many roads still must be cleared and made safe before more crews can get their larger bucket trucks in to begin the restoration and rebuilding process.

Issues like trees and heavy debris blocking roads, and communications down can slow down the rebuilding and restoration process, but Gulf Power is prepared for this type of storm devastation. 

As roads are being made safe, and with a restoration plan is in place, crews are beginning the restoration and rebuilding process. This process begins with transmission lines, which are the larger lines on the taller poles that bring power from Gulf Power’s generating plants to the substations.

Transmission lines are being inspected and repaired and substation crews are inspecting and repairing substations. Substations step down the voltage of the electricity from the power plants to a level that powers homes and businesses.

While any repairs are being made to the substations, crews will be inspecting the distribution lines and beginning the restoration process replacing poles, lines, transformers and more. Distribution lines carry electricity from our substations to homes and businesses.

Safety Tips

Gulf Power urges our customers to ensure that safety is a top priority. With extensive damage to critical infrastructure, it is important to keep safety tips at the forefront.

Stay Connected with Gulf Power

Gulf For the latest updates, and to monitor our progress in your area, please check Facebook, Twitter and Instagram as well as our outage map. #RebuildingTogether #RestoringHope #PowerofTeamwork #PanamaCityStrong