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TAMPA, Fla. – Duke Energy Florida is sending hundreds of workers north as a powerful winter storm threatens large portions of the South and East Coast.<\/p>\n
What we know:<\/p>\n
The company plans to deploy about five hundred line workers and contractors\u00a0from Florida to Florence, South Carolina, where crews will stay until the storm passes later this weekend. Once conditions improve, those crews will mobilize into impacted areas to help restore power.<\/p>\n
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The deployment comes as forecasters warn of a dangerous mix of snow, sleet, and freezing rain\u00a0across southern states, including the Carolinas, Georgia, and parts of Tennessee. The forecast is raising concerns about ice buildup on power lines and widespread outages.<\/p>\n
Crews deployed from the company\u2019s operations centers across the state, including Clearwater, beginning early Friday morning. The drive from Clearwater to Florence takes about eleven hours.<\/p>\n
READ MORE: Florida\u2019s new \u2018America 250\u2019 license plate design catching drivers\u2019 attention<\/a><\/p>\n Why you should care:<\/p>\n Ice storms are especially dangerous for power infrastructure. Even small amounts of freezing rain can weigh down lines, snap tree limbs, and trigger long-lasting outages.<\/p>\n By staging crews ahead of the storm, utilities can move quickly once roads reopen and conditions are safe. The emergency response speeds up power restoration for communities hit hardest.<\/p>\n READ MORE: Tampa woman says she’s out thousands of dollars after check stolen from USPS blue mailbox<\/a><\/p>\n What’s next:<\/p>\n The deployment is expected to last ten to fourteen days, though Duke Energy says crews could stay longer if damage is extensive.<\/p>\n While Florida customers are not expected to see any impact from the out-of-state response, utility leaders say having crews pre-positioned is critical as severe winter weather pushes deeper into the South.<\/p>\n Tampa Electric is also sending nearly 200 people to help those impacted by the winter storms.<\/p>\n According to TECO, about 60 line workers will leave Friday morning and prepare to stay for up to two weeks to help restore power. Another 130 tree trimmers and power line contractors are traveling to help Duke Energy Carolinas and Alabama Power.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Source: Information in this article comes from Duke Energy Florida, Tampa Electric Company and continuing FOX Local coverage of the impending winter storm.<\/p>\n Florida<\/a>Winter Weather<\/a>Duke Energy<\/a>South Carolina<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. – Duke Energy Florida is sending hundreds of workers north as a powerful winter storm threatens…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":129047,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[3401,47,28,30,29,115,1536,33847,628,221,26929],"class_list":{"0":"post-129046","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida","8":"tag-duke-energy","9":"tag-fl","10":"tag-florida","11":"tag-florida-headlines","12":"tag-florida-news","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-organization","15":"tag-sc","16":"tag-us","17":"tag-weather","18":"tag-winter-weather"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129046"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129046\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/129047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/vlcsnap-2026-01-23-05h47m53s545.png\")
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