© 2024 | WUWF Public Media
11000 University Parkway
Pensacola, FL 32514
850 474-2787
NPR for Florida's Great Northwest
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Gulf Power Conducts Hurricane Drill

Gulf Power

Gulf Power Company all gathered together Monday morning, to go, over their plan for before, during, and after a tropical storm and/for hurricane.

It was a full house at the utility’s new Douglas McCrary Training & Storm Center on Pine Forrest Road, as team leader from all department that would have storm duty looked at ways to improve response.

“It’s a hurricane scenario, where something is approaching in the Gulf of Mexico,” said Jeff Rogers, Gulf Power’s Corporate Communication managers. “It’s a number of days, or a number of hours out. Or maybe it’s passed through, so we pick up somewhere in that time line, and what do we do at this point.”

Every year, the utility, go over it's plan to rebuild parts of the electrical system damaged by storm, working closely with county emergency persons throughout its coverage area. All 14,000 Gulf Power employees have their own individual storm asignment -- usually something unrelated to their pay job.

“It could be logistics, it could be feeding crews that come from out-of-town, or housing them, or gassing up the vehicles,” Rogers said. “It could be patrolling (power) lines, or it could be talking to the media.”

One of the main challenges for Gulf Power, as with others charged with preparing for a storm, is making sure that the proper equipment and personnel are deployed for quick response once the storm blows throgh.

Rogers says several new tools are now available to help customers make their own informed decisions during hurricane season, which kicks off June 1. One is a “Power out Alert.” Simply texting the letters “REG” to 694-853.

Other feature include liver power outage maps online to check the entire coverage area, or specific neighborhoods.

Much of the hurricane prep changed across the board after Ivan and Dennis. But Rogers says there’s also much to learn from other storms and disasters such as last year’s flooding.

The drill rans from nine a.m. until noon. Afterward, participants took a break and then began the post-mortem.

Safety tips for Gulf Power’s 436,000 customers include stay away from drowned power lines and reporting them by calling 9-1-1. Other storm safety advice can be found atmygulfpower.com.