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to help us, as they always do when we face tragedies like now, right after Hurricane Isaias. JT Young, vice president and general manager of Florida Power&Light, is with us today. And, of course, the question everyone around me is asking: when will I have light? When will the electricity come back on? Certainly. Sue, I'll tell you, we've assembled 17,000 crews from over 29 states to come and help with the recovery process. So, we are committed to restoring power to the vast majority of our customers by tomorrow evening. And we really work hard. Our teams work hard, paying primary attention to safety. This is very important. And one of the things I want to convey is how important it is to be safe. There are many dangerous situations around. You saw in
the previous story many damaged trees, many poles and wires that are now lying on the ground. These are real challenges for recovery, as we need to get to the poles, to the wires, to the infrastructure to lift them. So certain damages that have occurred create real difficulties in performing this work. Tell me, can your crews go in, remove trees, and clear the path themselves? Do you have to work together with other services to do this? We are very fortunate to have the opportunity to work with the county and cities within our service area here in the Panhandle. We are coordinating with these other agencies, and they are doing a great job helping us clear the way so our crews can get
there and do the work. This is so important. But it's not just about the roads. These are roads, but, for example, after the roads, electricity needs to be delivered to a home or business. And often there are trees and other debris that can interfere with this. So we have to work on this. That's why we have vegetation clearance crews that also assist our line crews with this task. Do you have priority areas where you travel first? That's another thing that people say, "Well, they have light here and they do n't have it there."
Yes, and there are a few things that are extremely important for your viewers to understand. Once the storm passed, our rapid response teams began recovery between 8:00 and 9:00 pm on Friday. But we really want to make sure that critical infrastructure in communities is working. We need to ensure water supply, so we talked about ECUA and other services. They have to work. 911 services, hospitals, and similar institutions are very, very critical. So we focus on that as soon as we determine that we have the generation to feed energy into the grid. We do this and focus on the process that allows us to get the lights back on for the majority of customers as quickly as possible. And again, our focus is safety, our every step is based on safety.
Let me remind our customers and the public: if you see a broken wire, do not touch it. Don't pick it up, stay away from it. Call 911 or 1-800-4-Outage. And we will deal with this. But keep in mind that as of today, we have already restored supply, and the numbers are constantly improving because we are working right now. More than 220,000 customers have already received power since the storm, and here in Escambia County, that number is approaching 60,000. This work is painstaking and complex, but our crews and those who have come to help are doing a phenomenal job.
How do I explain the situation when my neighbor on the corner across the street has a light, but I don't Yes, because of the way the power grid is designed, there will be times when customers will see that a neighbor or someone who lives across the street has power, while you are being powered from a different line or location. So people may ask: where are all these trucks? Like, I don't see any cars in my area, but I assure you, we've conducted almost 190 drone flights surveying the damage. We deployed field controllers. So you may not see people working directly in your area. But work is ongoing to restore power, as often your energy source is not exactly nearby. It's somewhere else that's coming to you, and the way the grid is designed can cause
certain areas to get power before others, in fact, it will happen before other parts. How do you know that the problem is actually physically in your home and not part of a general systemic problem? Sometimes they don't know, but I want to remind your viewers also of one of the things that we say will prevent us from achieving our goal of restoring power to the vast majority of our customers by tomorrow evening. There may be damage. In your previous story, you talked about the extensive damage to homes and structures. Because sometimes this damage is so severe, we cannot supply power because the meter may have been disconnected from the house or building, or the input device may have been damaged, or
there may be such destruction that it is unsafe to supply power to that facility. So we are committed to providing power to those who can receive it by the end of tomorrow for most customers, and I want to remind everyone that we are continuing to work around the clock to make this happen. Now people want to monitor the process of restoring power supply, how can they best do this? It's tempting to pick up the phone, call, and keep telling FPL that I have no power. Of course, and we appreciate it. We really appreciate it. You can go to fpl.com/storm and find information there. And one more thing I want to inform the viewers:
we have several so- called aid points throughout the area. These aid stations will provide phone charging, food, water and support. We have people who can help with your account. And they can also find this information if they go to fpl.com/storm. Make sure you are on the Northwest Florida page. This way they can find out: " Where is the nearest aid station, where can I go?" Today we were at the Brownsville Community Center providing food and assistance. And we do this in many areas. So I want our customers to know that we are working with awareness of the difficulties associated with the lack of power and are working as diligently as we can, but safely, to restore power as quickly as possible Okay, give me another address where I can find out where to
get food, water, and everything else. Go to fpl.com/storm. And make sure you're on the Northwest Florida page when you go there. You will be taken to the Northwest Florida section, which will list the assistance points, addresses, and locations so customers know where to go for help. Okay, any more tips? Stay away from power lines. We are grateful to everyone for their patience. I know, it was exhausting. We are lucky that it is not +35 outside, but electricity is still necessary, and we will do everything possible to return it to customers as soon as possible. Okay, JT Young, General Manager, Vice President, Florida Power&Light. Thank you very much for coming and taking the time to talk to us. We want people to know that he
doesn't have light either. I really don't have any light right now. So, it's okay. So, he is at the very epicenter of events with us.
