Restoring power in SWFL is 'gritty' work, expected to be finished by Friday

About 27,000 utility workers are working across Florida to restore power lost when Hurricane Irma made landfall in the state Sept. 10. On the west coast — 2,300 workers.

Crews are on the job 12 to 16 hours a day, sometimes as many as 20 or 21 hours straight. Sometimes they sleep in their trucks when they can't make it back to base. Always, they say, it's hot, grueling work.

"You got to be gritty," said Chris Swindoll, superintendent of Irby Construction, a Mississippi-based company contracted by Florida Power & Light to help with restoration efforts. "You got to be able to roll with the punches."

And that's not including several other local and out-of-state landscaping, tree-trimming and disaster-relief companies working to restore Southwest Florida.

As of Tuesday, 80 percent of FPL customers in Collier County had power restored, and 93 percent of Lee County Electrical Cooperative customers had lights back on. 

Many customers have expressed their appreciation for the utility workers who have come from 30 states and Canada, while many other customers have voiced their frustrations.

"We certainly understand the frustration of being without power for a few hours, let alone a few days or a week," said Bill Orlove, a spokesman for FPL. "We certainly ask for their patience. We ask that they be, above all, safe and to understand that we're working 24/7 to get this done."

After the storm, FPL estimated all customers would be back up and running by Friday — 12 days after Irma made landfall — and Orlove said that goal is still within reach.

"Only in areas where there's extensive flooding or there's been tornado activity," he said. "Those places might still be out, but we're just going to keep working to get everybody restored."

On Monday, crews from Irby Construction worked on a muddy path near the Hitching Post Co-Op. The mobile home park off U.S. 41 near Collier Boulevard in East Naples had some structural damage, and the crews worked to bring electricity back to the park and to residents on the same grid to the south of the park.

"It's kind of a precarious situation between this wooded area and some mobile home parks that suffered some damage," Orlove said, motioning toward the brush that had to be cleared before workers could move in. "They've got to raise this line and then get it energized."

Linemen and women are staying overnight at 20 staging sites across the state — hosting about 1,000 workers each — where they are provided fuel, equipment, food, water, showers and a place to sleep. The "mini cities" in Southwest Florida are at the greyhound track in Bonita Springs and at the Collier County Fairgrounds. Trailers accommodate 18 to 30 workers, bunk-bed style.

"Everything we do, and the things we've learned from each storm, is to get our customers' power back quickly and as safely as possible, and any way that we were able to speed those efforts, it's a bonus for not only our customers but for us in terms of getting the work done," Orlove said. "So by having our crews sleep at the place where they're going to get their work orders saves them time."

Even before the storm, FPL started to mobilize crews and put contracted companies on standby. Swindoll and his team of about 110 workers traveled from Texas, where they worked to restore power to areas hit hardest by Hurricane Harvey earlier this month, to Fort Lauderdale. There, they weathered the storm at a Category 4 shelter before starting work in the Naples area.

"We started working immediately," Swindoll said. "We have to ground the lines before the tree trimmers can start their stuff."

Hurricane Irma was especially hard on the trees.

More than 1,000 employees from the Davey Tree Expert Co. are in Florida helping with recovery efforts, including hundreds of workers who traveled from Maine and California, according to a news release from the Ohio-based company.

On the ground, the crews identify tree hazards and remove them so utility companies can restore electricity.

“We cannot fully express how proud we are of these employees who chose to help with storm recovery,” said Pat Covey, president and CEO of the company, in the news release. “We are grateful, our clients are grateful, and the public is grateful for their service. They will be working hard under difficult circumstances for many days, and above all, our hope is that they come home safely.”

After the storm, Orlove said, priority goes "from macro to micro," starting with power plants and transmission lines, the ones that distribute power from substations to residential and business customers. About 95 percent of FPL's transmission structures, which are built of concrete or steel, weathered Hurricane Irma, Orlove said.

From there, crews start with critical facilities, such as hospitals, police and fire stations, and community services such as grocery stores, pharmacies and gas stations.

"And then we go to the hardest-hit areas, like here," Orlove said, motioning to the mobile home community. "Going house to house or area by area."

Hurricane Irma was an "unprecedented" storm, he said, affecting all 35 counties in FPL's service area. Ultimately, "no energy grid is immune to Mother Nature's fury," Orlove said.

Despite the long hours and hard labor, the job of a utility worker is rewarding, Swindoll said. Once lights come on, some customers in Collier County have delivered water and snacks to Irby Construction workers. Restaurants and other businesses have offered free meals and services.

"If it takes not eating or not taking a bath for a couple days, that’s what you have to do," Swindoll said. "We got your back. We’re doing all we can do."