Outages Post-Hurricane Ian Down to Less Than 500,000 in Florida

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
October 5, 2022

There were approximately 394,000 customer outages in Florida as a result of Hurricane Ian as of the afternoon of October 4, down from a peak of 2.7 million customers without power, the Department of Energy reported.

Ian made its initial landfall near Port Charlotte, Fla., as a category 4 hurricane on September 28.

Outages in Florida were down 85% from the peak on September 29, DOE said.

Restoration efforts continue across Florida. Electric industry representatives report that at the peak, more than 44,000 workers from 33 states and the District of Columbia were supporting power restorations.

Overall, Florida utilities report that Ian mainly impacted the distribution system, with no significant damage reported to transmission assets.

DOE said portions of the electric distribution system will need to be rebuilt in some of the hardest hit areas of Florida.

Meanwhile, in South Carolina, Santee Cooper on Oct. 3 reported that it restored 70,000 customers within 54 hours after Hurricane Ian directly hit its service territory, making landfall at Winyah Bay in Georgetown County Friday. All customers who lost power because of Hurricane Ian were restored by 8:02 p.m. Sunday. 

Santee Cooper is the state-owned public power utility in South Carolina.

Crews worked around the clock to restore all residential and commercial customers, with the help of 34 contract line crews and 12 tree crews from across the southeast. Amongst the restoration, these crews replaced 20 power poles and 32 transformers. 

Hurricane Ian also knocked 12 transmission lines out of service, affecting power delivery to six electric cooperatives and other Santee Cooper retail customers.

The cooperatives impacted were Berkeley Electric Cooperative, Santee Electric Cooperative, Marlboro Electric Cooperative, and Lynches River Electric Cooperative, Horry Electric Cooperative and Mid-Carolina Electric Cooperative.

Santee Cooper had 10 external transmission line and tree crews, plus four helicopters and crews, helping its internal team.

All transmission delivery points were reenergized by Friday night, just hours after Ian left the Santee Cooper footprint.