PANAMA CITY — As Hurricane season begins, Florida Power and Light sat down with the News Herald to talk about how they have been preparing.
FPL spokesperson Sarah Gatewood said they’ve been doing hardening projects to protect the grid across the region. While Gatewood says it varies depending on the geographic circumstance, this work could involve replacing older poles, replacing them with concrete or stronger poles, or shortening the wire span between poles.
It could also involve trimming vegetation or putting segments of powerlines underground. Gatewood also spoke to how FPL responds during and after a storm event.
“We prepare year-round, so that when a storm is coming, we’re able to know what we need to do and respond as quickly as possible,” said Gatewood. “Even while a storm is impacting our area, we are trying to get the lights back on for anybody that’s been impacted, so that can be either out in the field or from control centers.”
The spokesperson said they now have the technology to route power around an outage, so that even if a line goes down, it doesn’t affect all the customers in a given area. When it is safe to do so, they will send linemen out to make the physical repairs and have agreements with utilities around the country to make sure they have the manpower necessary.
“We also identify ahead of storm season what we call staging sites, and that is areas where we can park trucks and sometimes even house the crews, so that they’re ready and in place as soon as they can get out to do work,” said Gatewood.
They can use monitoring technology, including drones, to assess where damage occurs and direct their linemen to the right place. In 2025, FPL spokespeople showed off their new storm-hardened control center in Bay County to the News Herald, where they could watch outages and truck locations in real time.
“No grid is going to be hurricane-proof, so we do as much as we can to make it more resilient, so we can get power back faster,” said Gatewood. “We have a major drill every May, and we basically simulate a hurricane. It’s a different scenario every year, and the team reacts as if it’s an actual storm, so that everybody gets that experience.”
She said that during a real severe weather event, there would be a small FPL team embedded into the Bay County Emergency Operations Center. This would be to make for more effective and direct communication with first responders and local officials.
While an El Niño weather pattern is supposed to create a slower Hurricane season, it only takes one storm to cause immense damage. Hurricanes Michael and Idalia both hit during El Niño years.
“Part of why we prepare year-round and make sure that we’re ready is you never know what Mother Nature is going to bring our way, you know, even if it’s a tropical storm, it can still have a big impact,” said Gatewood. “Every storm is different, so part of our job is to prepare for all those situations to try to think through what those different needs might be.”
While FPL aggressively tackles the infrastructure and logistics around preparing the grid for storms, they also advise residents to prepare as well.
Gatewood said that if residents plan on taking precautions to protect their home, now is the time to start making that plan. For the Floridians who are going to ride out a storm, Gatewood says they should make sure they have the supplies they need, including food, water, and medicine.
She also spoke about the importance of planning around pets as well as what to do if the power goes out. This includes electric-dependent medical equipment and the safe use of a generator.
“Now’s a great time to do trimming or vegetation management at your own home, much like we do around our power poles and power lines,” said Gatewood. “You may want to trim back trees near your house. Now is the best time to do that, because you can safely get rid of the debris and what’s taken off, versus when a storm is coming.”
Lifelong Floridians may recall crowds rushing into retail establishments ahead of a storm to get their hands on bottled water, flashlights and batteries. Readers may find the best time to prepare for a storm is before one is forecasted.
Readers can find more information about storm preparedness on FPL’s website.
This article originally appeared on The News Herald: FPL shares its storm prep details, and how you can be ready too
Reporting by Dylan Gentile, Panama City News Herald / The News Herald
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Dylan Gentile, Panama City News Herald | USA TODAY Network
