- The city of Tallahassee is reporting more than 10,000 customers, as of Tuesday at 6 p.m. are still without power.
- The city says rebuilding efforts in the most impacted areas will last through Friday. Those with individual and isolated outages to buildings may not see power until after that.
- Watch the video to see why some people are asking for electricity for their vulnerable neighbors.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
The city of Tallahassee is reporting more than 10,000 customers, as of Tuesday at 6 p.m., are still without power. It’s day 5 without lights for some of our neighbors.
I’m Shamarria Morrison in SW Tallahassee
The city says its crews and 27 mutual aid utilities are still working to rebuild the electric grid.
The city has been sharing updates on social media from crews about the progress they’re making and giving explainers on the process of rebuilding the electric grid.
One neighbor said her son can’t do important schoolwork he must complete to graduate on time in the next few weeks.
“If we can get power, he can do those things online to make sure that he's graduating, and one of the things that he wants to do upon graduation," Angel Ardley said, "because they have come to school to talk to him. It's to be a lineman."
The city says rebuilding efforts in the most impacted areas will last through Friday.
Those with individual and isolated outages to buildings may not see power until after that.
Here’s a timeline of the progress we’ve seen so far.
- On Friday at 10:30 a.m. more than 68,000 customers were without power.
- That number quickly rose to over 80,000 over the weekend.
- The first wave of more than 215 personnel from utility companies across the Southeast arrived to assist city crews on Friday.
- Later that night—they reported that 85% of the work on transmission lines was complete.
- Less than an hour later they reported all substations energized.
- On Saturday night they restored power to 75% of those without.
- On Sunday night—they reported restoration to 91% of the electric grid.
- Severe weather on Monday halted progress.
- And as of Tuesday, they anticipated the hardest hit areas would get power restored by Friday.
Neighbors tell me they see crews out working and are grateful for their lives, but electricity is one of their greatest needs.
In Ardley's neighborhood, some homes are destroyed. But for neighbors, like her, who can offer cooked meals, hot showers, and cool places to store medicine, the lights coming back on are crucial.
"We can help the homeless people that have lost their homes in our community, just to give them a place to shower and possibly maybe a hot meal," Ardley said. "They're just they're in hopelessness without anything, I've got a lady across the street staying in their home, in her bedroom, and can't get through either of her doors. So I just want to do anything I can to help our community.
For those without power still and needing resources a city spokesperson said, "Residents are encouraged to call 2-1-1 Big Bend, our community's local social services referral agency, at 2-1-1 or 850-617-6333 to be connected to disaster relief resources or other recovery help."
