Video shows a cavalry of linemen en route to restore power in Florida’s Cape Coral as millions have already seen power restored in the days following Hurricane Ian.
Video shows a long trail of linemen reportedly moving into Cape Coral, which is in Lee County — one of the counties that saw the brunt of destruction caused by the massive Category 4 storm:
HOW AMAZING IS THIS?! 🙌
Check out the massive cavalry of linemen & women that just moved into Cape Coral to help restore power after #Ian. Credit: @WINKNews viewer Joan H pic.twitter.com/HiFGtNipa6— Matt Devitt (@MattDevittWINK) October 5, 2022
Thankful for all our linesmen.
Thankful for @GovRonDeSantis leadership.pic.twitter.com/Sa5g62UWfT
— Casey DeSantis (@CaseyDeSantis) October 5, 2022
Last Thursday, Gov. Ron DeSantis identified Charlotte County and Lee County as essentially “off the grid,” likely needing the rebuilding of infrastructure to reconnect power altogether.
“Sarasota has a quarter of a million without power. Hillsborough 222,000. Pinellas 150,000. Manatee 129,000. The Charlotte and Lee reconnects are really going to likely have to be rebuilding of that infrastructure,” he said at the time.
“But that’s going to be more than just connecting a power line back to back to a pole,” he added. “The other counties likely are not going to require the extent of the structural rebuild, but of course that’s going to be assessed as the day goes on.”
As of Sunday, linemen had restored power for roughly 2 million customers in the Sunshine State. According to Reuters’ Friday report, at one point, over 3.5 million people were without power in the aftermath of the storm. Prior to the hurricane’s landfall, DeSantis made it clear that tens of thousands of linemen were ready to respond:
#HurricaneIan is making landfall now. Florida is ready to respond. We have fleets of highwater vehicles, 42,000 linemen, 7,000 National Guardsmen and 179 aircraft prepared to help.
— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) September 28, 2022
Florida has more than 42,000 linemen already staged for power restoration efforts across the state. Thank you for being prepared to power up our state.
For updates on #HurricaneIan follow @FLSERT. pic.twitter.com/7QO8UEALbE— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) September 28, 2022
This is incredible… 42,000+ linemen are on standby and ready to go in Florida.
God Bless these heroes. 🙏🏻 pic.twitter.com/ItpbdMQONK
— Ryan Fournier (@RyanAFournier) September 29, 2022
According to most recent data, just under 300,000 customers remain without power in Florida, mostly in Lee and Charlotte counties.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.