Hurricane Milton Mutual Aid

Wisconsin public power crews headed to Florida to help with hurricane recovery

> Oct. 17 news release
> Oct. 8 news release 
> Follow the crews' progress on MEUW's Facebook page. 
 

Wednesday, Oct. 16, 4:45 p.m. — The Wisconsin crews have completed their work and have been released by Lakeland Electric to return home. They will spend one last night in Lakeland tonight before beginning the journey back to Wisconsin on Thursday morning. Everyone is expected to be back in their home communities on Friday.

Wednesday, Oct. 16, 11:30 a.m. — Our crews continue the hard work of restoring service for Lakeland Electric customers. Together with crews from eight other states and the Lakeland employees, all but roughly 100 customers now have their electric service restored (compared to more than 86,000 outages immediately following Milton's landfall a week ago).

Monday, Oct. 14, 9:00 a.m. — Wisconsin crews are contributing to a swift decrease in the total number of Lakeland Electric customers still without power. Over the weekend, thousands of customers had electric service restored. As of this morning, about 4,300 customers are still out.

Friday, Oct. 11, 3:00 p.m. — Lakeland Electric is dealing 62 broken poles, 35 damaged transformers, and nearly 300 downed wires reported so far. The numbers are certain to grow as power restoration continues. Our Wisconsin crews are working to replace broken poles in waist-deep floodwaters.

Friday, Oct. 11, 11:00 a.m. — Lakeland Electric reports 38,000 of its customers are without power. Due to the extensive wind and flood damage, power restoration is estimated to take at least seven days. Wisconsin crews are now at work alongside more than 600 personnel who are in the field helping Lakeland restore electricity. In addition to the Wisconsin lineworkers, mutual aid crews from Alabama, Florida, Illinois, Louisiana, Michigan, Ohio, Oklahoma, and Texas are hard at work in Lakeland today.

Thursday, Oct. 10, 10:00 p.m. — Our crews have arrived in Lakeland after a long travel day. They will be resting overnight and will begin their restoration work in the morning.

Thursday, Oct. 10, 10:30 a.m. — Our crews will be providing mutual aid to Lakeland Electric, which is about 35 miles east of Tampa. Lakeland has about 82,000 electric meters, and while they're still assessing the damage, roughly 62% of their customers are currently without electricity. Wisconsin crews are expected to arrive in Lakeland later this evening — after 8:00 p.m. local time. We expect they will get their assignments and begin work at sunrise Friday morning.

Thursday, Oct. 10, 7:30 a.m. — We have been assigned to assist Lakeland Electric. Our Wisconsin crews will depart at 8:00 a.m. for the 10-hour trip to central Florida.

Thursday, Oct. 10, 6:00 a.m. — Our Wisconsin crews spent the night in Smyrna, Tennessee, which had been designated as their pre-staging area. The utility in Kissimmee has all the resources it needs at this time. We are currently awaiting details about a potential reassignment to assist a different Florida utility.

Wednesday, Oct. 9, 7:15 a.m. — They're on their way to Florida. After fueling up, the crews departed from South Beloit, Ill., at 7 a.m. to begin their journey to Kissimmee. A total of 47 workers, representing 22 Wisconsin communities are making the trip, including two MEUW staffers to monitor worker safety and manage resources.

Tuesday, Oct. 8, 1:30 p.m. — The Wisconsin crews are scheduled to depart on Wednesday, Oct. 9, at 7:00 a.m., and are using an area near Beloit for initial staging. From there, Wisconsin crews will head to Smyrna, Tennessee, with plans to arrive in Kissimmee by mid-day Thursday, Oct. 10. Workers are expected to be in Florida for 10 days to two weeks.

Monday, Oct. 7, 2:00 p.m. — The Florida Municipal Electric Association has requested lineworkers and equipment from Wisconsin to assist in the community of Kissimmee, where Wisconsin crews have provided mutual aid before. MEUW is coordinating with its municipal utility members and expects to deploy to Florida on Wednesday, Oct. 9.

 

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About mutual aid: Mutual aid is electric utilities helping each other in times of need. Utilities that want to give and get help for power restoration after a disaster are part of a network of community-owned electric companies. When (and even before) a major disaster hits a utility’s territory and the utility knows that its own crews and equipment won’t be enough to restore power quickly, it calls for mutual aid. Other utilities in the network respond with what they can offer. 

> Check out this brief video explaining the mutual aid process (Courtesy: American Public Power Association)
 

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Wisconsin crews will be providing support to Lakeland Electric in the city of Lakeland, Florida
> Storm updates from Lakeland Electric Facebook and X pages
> Link to Lakeland Electric Website

 Lakeland Electric is the third-largest public power utility in the State of Florida, serving 128,000 customers. It has a staff of 412 full-time employees. The utility is also one of the first utilities established in Florida, and recently celebrated 115 years as a locally owned business.