Lake City and Columbia County residents who are Florida Power and Light customers may find their power restored and the sweet air flowing from their air conditioning units as soon as this weekend as crews from the state’s largest power company focus intently on Columbia and Suwannee Counties in an assault to get past the destruction of Hurricane Helene.
At Columbia County’s special called County Commission meeting Saturday afternoon to update the emergency status of all recovery operations in the county, FPL spokesman Colin Hughes, the company’s EOC representative, told county commissioners and the group of emergency responders that FPL was closing in on having Columbia County back on its feet.
“FPL has all major substations and transmission facilities back operational,” Hughes said. “We hope to have all of Columbia County 95% restored by the end of day Monday.”
That report came early in the 1 p.m. meeting at the county’s emergency operations center, much to the appreciation of commissioners and other emergency personnel at the scene.
Carol Saviak, FPL external affairs manager - North Florida, from St. Augustine, also attended the county’s EOC briefing and said she was concerned about the number of FPL customers with outages in Columbia County and Suwannee County and pledged the company’s focused effort on continued work until all electricity was restored in both counties.
Saviak was moving between EOC locations in Lake City and Live Oak on Saturday.
Also in the area from FPL on Saturday was an unprecedented visit from President and CEO Armando Pimentel, who toured the damage in Lake City and Live Oak in North Florida.
“We know how difficult it is to be without power,” Pimentel said. “I want to reassure our customers that we are committed to restoring power, quickly as possible, so they can get their lives back to normal.”
An online update at 5 p.m. Saturday from the FPL website map tracker, said the company’s restoration estimate had improved to 95% of power restored in Columbia County by end of day Sunday.
It also indicated that as of Saturday afternoon, about half — 7,360 — of FPL’s 14,690 customers were back in business with electricity.