Alabama Power employees are prepared to move quickly and safely to restore service should hurricanes strike.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is predicting an active to extremely active Atlantic hurricane season, which begins June 1. During May, Alabama Power employees in Mobile and across the state reviewed the company’s storm plans. The company also recently upgraded its website, with updated outage reporting information and severe weather tips.

“Following Superstorm Sandy, there has been a heightened awareness of storm preparedness and storm response,” said Danny Glover, vice president of Alabama Power Distribution. “Alabama Power has worked very closely with the electric utility industry to ensure we are sharing best practices and lessons learned. We want to do everything that we can to be prepared in order to return power to our customers as fast and as safely as possible following a natural disaster.”

Training and experience have helped make Alabama Power employees among the best in the industry in responding to severe weather. The company recently received the Edison Electric Institute’s 2012 Emergency Assistance Award for helping restore power after derecho windstorms hit the Midwest and Middle Atlantic regions last June, and for the company’s response after Hurricane Sandy walloped the East Coast in October.

In February the company hosted storm recovery experts from nearly 30 utilities from across the country to discuss and share best practices for power restoration.

Lessons learned from each event, including the extensive recovery efforts following the deadly storms of April 2011, have helped prepare the company for the 2013 hurricane season.

Here are some other ways the company has prepared for hurricane season:

• The company has reviewed its storm plan and made adjustments in emergency storm assignments, staging area locations, logistics and communications equipment designed to improve response capabilities.
• The company continues to expand the number of employees who have been trained to play a variety of supporting roles in storm recovery operations.
• The company has increased its inventory of materials for the season, including pre-packaged storm kits. The kits contain an assortment of supplies typically needed by crews making storm-related repairs. The company works with suppliers to ensure they are ready to quickly provide materials and supplies during storm recovery operations.
• The company has conducted frequent discussions with utility companies that comprise our mutual assistance program. Under the program, investor-owned utilities in the region pledge to provide crews to assist Alabama Power when a major storm strikes, depending on their availability, and Alabama Power pledges to assist others when they need help.

To learn more about how Alabama Power responds to storms and how you can prepare for the season, log on to www.alabamapower.com. Click on “About Us” and then “Storm Center.”