PENSACOLA, Fla. - Aug. 22,2008 - Gulf Power is making preparations as Tropical Storm Fay threatens Northwest Florida.
The electric utility, which received a national award for storm restoration work after Hurricane Ivan, believes its employees are better prepared than ever to respond.
"Every Gulf Power employee has a specific storm duty to ensure that power is restored as quickly and safely as possible," said John Hutchinson, Public Affairs general manager.
Gulf Power has approximately 100 Georgia Power employees who will arrive in Panama City tonight and another 100 who will report in Pensacola Saturday afternoon. The company is also checking its supplies of materials and reviewing storm assignments.
"We will work with Emergency Management personnel and restore service to critical customers like hospitals, sewer lift stations and police and fire stations as quickly as possible," Hutchinson said. "We ask everyone to please be patient. Fay is a slow moving storm and there will likely be outages. We’ll be able to respond to those outages until winds reach 35 mph. At that time our crews will need to seek shelter until winds return to below 35 mph. We don’t expect widespread outages, but they may last a few hours because of the slow moving system hampering out efforts to work."
Gulf Power is able to detect most widespread outages during a storm and customers should wait a reasonable time before calling in an outage report. The company encourages customers to call 1.800.GU.POWER (487.6937) for reporting outages.
Please keep the following in mind if a storm makes landfall in Northwest Florida.
Before the storm hits
- Set your air conditioner lower to cool down your house. With doors and windows kept closed you can keep your house relatively cool for about 48 hours after the storm.
- Charge your cell phone — and any other devices — before the storm arrives.
- Make an emergency phone list and have it laminated. Some numbers to include: ambulance service, fire department, hospitals, doctors, pharmacy and prescription numbers, insurance agent, roofing companies, building contractors, tree cutting services, electricians, neighbors and Gulf Power’s outage number — 1-800-GU-POWER.
- Fill your butane bottle on your gas grill or portable stove.
- Wash all your dirty dishes and dirty clothes.
- Fill up plastic jugs with water and place them in your freezer. A full freezer stays colder longer.
- Cut your grass — it’s easier to rake up all the leaves and yard debris if your grass has been recently cut.
After the storm hits
- Stay away from all downed lines. Warn others to do the same and contact Gulf Power or a local law enforcement agency.
- If there is damage to your meter box or the pole attached to your meter box, you must first have an electrician make repairs before Gulf Power can restore your service.
- Wait a reasonable time before calling Gulf Power if your entire neighborhood is without power. Gulf Power can detect most widespread outages electronically without customers calling in. Extra calls jam switchboards and slow repairs. Please make only one call.
- Before neighborhood lines can be worked on, Gulf Power crews must first repair larger lines that bring power to population centers. So don’t expect to see work crews in your neighborhoods immediately after a storm.
- Do not connect portable generators to your household electrical wiring. This can cause serious injury to you and to Gulf Power employees. Instead plug appliances into the generator.
- Turn off large appliances and air conditioners and wait 10 to 15 minutes after power has been restored before turning them back on. This prevents a power surge from shutting down electricity again.
- Please be patient. Don’t stop Gulf Power crews to report an outage or ask for information. Before neighborhood lines can be worked on, Gulf Power crews must first repair larger lines that bring power to neighborhoods. The crews are working as safely and as fast as they can.
You can find important information to help you prepare for a storm as well as get information after the storm by visiting Gulf Power's Web site at www.gulfpower.com.
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Gulf Power Media Contacts
John Hutchinson: 850.444.6750, cell: 850.324.0099
Lynn Erickson: 850.444.6249, cell: 850.293.4614
Jeff Rogers: 850.444.6243, cell: 850.572.5511
Media line: 800.621.6688