Jacksonville’s utility authority hires more contractors to handle expected outages from Milton

JEA crews work on restoring power lines during Tropical Storm Debby. Image via JEA

JEA is not sparing any expense in preparing for the onset of Hurricane Milton, which is forecast to skirt Northeast Florida after it makes landfall in Southwest Florida Wednesday into Thursday.

Jacksonville’s public utility provider is hiring more personnel in advance of the storm, putting more lineworkers and crews on duty as the city braces for Milton’s impacts.

JEA is securing more lineworkers to help restore power lines when Milton pounds the First Coast area. JEA officials said in a news release Tuesday that they will likely have 50 lineworker contracted crews at the ready when the storm hits. That amounts to an additional 200 lineworkers who are bracing to restore power should lines fall or get knocked out, most likely on Thursday.

Despite the additional personnel being added, JEA officials advised residents of Jacksonville to note that any lines that do falter during the storm won’t be reestablished until after Milton passes and moves out into the Atlantic Ocean.

“We ask customers to be prepared for water and power outages and understand that there may be longer-than-normal service restoration times. Please have patience as our crews work safely in the aftermath of the storm,” a JEA news release said Tuesday.

One thing helping in the building of personnel that will be assigned to handle the storm is the return of several JEA crews who were dispatched to other locales to help in the recovery from Hurricane Helene which slammed Florida and several other states on Sept. 26. Multiple JEA crews were dispatched to Brunswick, Georgia, over a week ago to help that city recover and restore utility services after Helene thrashed the region.

“JEA’s mutual aid crews who deployed to Brunswick, Ga., last week have returned. All JEA team members are prepared to respond to area impacts and restore utility services once it is safe to do so. We will work until every customer has water and power restored,” JEA officials said.

Meanwhile, JEA officials said that while they anticipate calls to restore power lines and water service once Milton plows through the area, customers can make responses easier if they check their utility accounts to make sure all contact information is ready.

“If customers haven’t already done so, we encourage them to verify their mobile phone number and email address on their JEA account. If information is out of date, they could miss important storm information and restoration updates,” the JEA news release said.