November 17, 2020

Updated: Nov. 16, 2020, 4 p.m.

Line workers from Ohio Edison, Penn Power, West Penn Power and JCP&L who responded to requests for mutual assistance in Florida following Tropical Storm Eta last week are safely home. After rendering assistance in the Largo area, near Tampa, our crews were released by Duke Energy on Friday around 9 a.m.  All crews arrived home by Sunday, Nov. 15.

“Because of the back-and-fo​rth nature of this trip, some logged more than 3,500 miles altogether. Even with all this travel, we’re very gratified that no safety incidents occurred,” noted Dennis Pavagadhi, director, Operations Services, JCP&L, who provided on-site leadership for our personnel.

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FE Crews Respond to Florida Assistance Calls – Twice!

Updated: Nov. 12, 2020, 11:30 a.m.

Tropical Storm Eta’s erratic path through the Gulf of Mexico has brought it onto land four times now – including twice in Florida. As a result, FirstEnergy crews responding to requests for mutual assistance have followed a somewhat erratic path, too.

As the storm was passing through southern Florida Sunday night, 150 line workers from FirstEnergy Utilities hit the road heading south to assist Florida Power & Light with anticipated outages. Crews from JCP&L, Mon Power, Ohio Edison, Penn Power, Potomac Edison and West Penn Power arrived at their designated staging site – Daytona International Speedway – on Monday. JCP&L workers responded to some service calls in the Daytona Beach area on Tuesday, but all other crews were released that morning as storm damage in the area turned out to be less than was anticipated.

As crews headed home Wednesday, it became apparent Eta would make landfall again – this time, on northern Florida’s Gulf Coast. Duke Energy requested assistance, so most of them turned around and headed south again.

Around 90 line workers were scheduled to arrive at a staging site in Inverness, Fla., on Thursday morning. As they check in with Duke Energy, company personnel will complete COVID-19 health screenings and other preparations. They expect to start post-storm power restoration work later today. At this time, Duke Energy is reporting approximately 34,000 outages in Florida.