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FORT PIERCE, Fla. \u2014<\/p>\nFORT PIERCE, Fla. \u2014<\/p>\n
South Florida utility crews and first responders are aiding recovery efforts in Florida’s Panhandle following Hurricane Isaias. <\/p>\n
On Saturday, the Fort Pierce Utilities Authority sent seven crew members and five trucks to the area to help restore power. <\/p>\n
The crew is working with Choctawhatchee Electric Cooperative, also known as CHELCO, alongside other utility companies from across Florida. They are rebuilding power lines, removing damaged equipment, and installing new transformers and distribution lines. <\/p>\n
The American Public Power Association said nearly 67,000 CHELCO customers lost power during the storm, affecting about 90% of its system. <\/p>\n
Fort Pierce Utilities said a statewide mutual-aid agreement allows utilities to quickly send crews to areas where they are most needed. This agreement has also brought outside crews to South Florida following previous hurricanes. <\/p>\n
“Because of the collaboration and the help provided by the mutual aid agreements, we’re able to help each other out. And we couldn’t do it on our own. It’s too much damage, and it gets our customers back up in a shorter amount of time when there’s power loss,” said Keith Stephens, director of gas and electric for Fort Pierce Utilities Authority. <\/p>\n
The Fort Pierce crew is expected to remain in the Panhandle throughout this week or as long as the crew’s assistance is required. <\/p>\n
Florida Power & Light has also sent thousands of lineworkers to the Gulf Coast to help restore power. Palm Beach County Fire Rescue and Delray Beach Fire Rescue have deployed crews as well, and they are expected to assist with recovery efforts for the next two weeks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORT PIERCE, Fla. \u2014 South Florida utility crews and first responders are aiding recovery efforts in Florida’s Panhandle…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":425696,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[2954,167445,74373,16928,17917,28,167443,167444,4805,166250,167446,167442,171,173,172,5592,27749,1456],"class_list":["post-425695","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-port-st-lucie","tag-area","tag-chelco","tag-crew-member","tag-director","tag-electric","tag-florida","tag-fort-pierce-utilities-authority","tag-fort-pierce-utility-crew","tag-gas","tag-hurricane-isaias","tag-keith-stephens","tag-panhandle-recovery","tag-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","tag-port-st-lucie-news","tag-power","tag-recovery-effort","tag-week"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425695","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=425695"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425695\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/425696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=425695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=425695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=425695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}