Once again, thousands of customers are without power in Florida as Hurricane Jeanne moves up the East coast. In the hardest hit counties, initial assessments indicate crews will be facing major damage from flooding and wind-toppled trees and other airborne debris. Numerous pockets of downed power poles and wires may require extensive rebuild efforts in hard-hit counties such as Martin, St. Lucie and Indian River where the eye wall of Hurricane Jeanne came ashore.

Tampa Electric Restores 57,000 Customers Since Peak Impact

Tampa Electric this morning reported that 228,000 customers are without power, including 167,000 in Hillsborough County, 54,000 in Polk County/Winter Haven and 7000 in Pasco County/Dade City. This figure is down 57,000 from the original peak of 285,000 outages resulting from Hurricane Jeanne.

The company experienced extensive structural damage to the eastern portion of its system, including equipment serving Brandon, Plant City, Dade City and Winter Haven, and surrounding areas. Transmission and distribution circuits, as well as substation facilities, were more significantly damaged than during Hurricane Charley or Frances.

The company expects to complete aerial and detailed ground surveys of damage to its system today.

Vice President-Energy Delivery Tom Hernandez said, "Our crews are on the job, working 24-hour shifts to restore power to our customers as safely and quickly as possible. Power restoration will be more challenging with this storm because outside assistance is less available."

Of the 1800 line crew and tree-trimming personnel Tampa Electric requested from other utilities, the company expects that it will get 300 and that those will primarily arrive on Wednesday. Many resources, both materials and workers, are still engaged with restoration efforts from Hurricanes Charley, Frances and Ivan.

"The reality is, with Hurricane Jeanne, we have more damage and less help. Restoration is likely to take longer, and we ask the customers without power as a result of this storm for their patience," said Hernandez.

Progress Energy Florida Restores Power to 96,000

Progress Energy Florida has restored power to more than 96,000 customers who lost electricity. As of 11:00 a.m., 626,120 Progress Energy Florida customers were without power--down from a peak of 722,000 at 10 p.m. Sunday night.

Hurricane Jeanne's heavy winds and rains damaged 805 miles of Progress Energy transmission lines and 80 substations. Thus far, 276 miles of those transmission lines and 40 substations have been restored.

"Jeanne was a major hurricane--the fourth one to hit Florida in six weeks--and once again we've got significant damage to our system and hundreds of thousands of customers without power," said Bill Habermeyer, president and CEO, Progress Energy Florida. "This will definitely be a multi-day restoration effort, but our crews have made steady progress overnight.

"We are assessing damage and restoring power and expect to have estimated restoration times for many counties as soon as we've completed damage assessment," Habermeyer added. "We won't rest until the job is done."

Good Weather Enables FPL Crews to Get Jump Start on Restoration

Florida Power & Light Company today said good weather immediately following Hurricane Jeanne's speedy departure from the majority of FPL's 35-county service territory has enabled restoration crews to turn on the lights for more than 750,000 customers impacted by the third hurricane to strike the Florida peninsula this summer.

From a total 1,737,400 customers originally out of service, crews have restored service in all of Miami-Dade and Collier Counties. FPL expects to complete restoration in Broward County by tonight, with crews then being shifted to Palm Beach (where nearly half of the customers impacted already have had power restored) and other hard hit counties north to Brevard.

FPL already is in the process of setting up staging sites near hard-hit areas to enhance the efficiency and responsiveness of crews in those locations. Seven staging sites should be in operation by the end of the day from north Broward to Brevard County.