‘Up and running’: Gulf Power restores energy to all Northwest Florida customers after Hurricane Sally

Power was restored late Monday to all Gulf Power customers impacted by Hurricane Sally in North Florida, the company announced.

Hurricane Sally, which made landfall as a slow-moving Category 2 storm, left 285,000 customers without energy in the storm’s wake. The five-day recovery effort was driven by 7,000 workers operating out of 12 staging sites. It was also completed despite areas of flooding across the northwest portion of the Florida Panhandle.

“I want to thank our community partners for their support in so many ways as we worked together to get our region back up and running,” said  Gulf Power President Marlene Santos. “We know that getting the power back on is critical to beginning to restore normalcy for communities. I also want to thank our dedicated employees and the mutual assistance crews who worked around the clock to help us get our customers’ lights back on ahead of schedule – and most importantly, we completed this work safely.”

Gulf Power also credited its sister company, Florida Power & Light Company, for providing mutual aid. In all, FPLC sent more than 1,800 employees and contractors to support the recovery effort.

“Mutual assistance is a hallmark of our industry,” Santos continued. “Just as Gulf Power has been happy to assist other utilities with restoration efforts, we appreciate the willingness of FPL and others to step up and help us serve our customers in their time of need.”

The work for Gulf Power, however, is far from over.  The company said they will now transition into follow up work such as picking up damaged equipment, rebalancing leaning power poles and flying drones to x-ray electrical systems.

Gov. Ron DeSantis in the storm’s immediate aftermath identified power restoration and reconstruction as top priorities.

The Governor the following day surveyed storm damage aboard a U.S. Coast Guard plane alongside state and local leaders.