Florida Co-ops Wrap Up Power Restoration Efforts After Hurricane Milton

Last Updated: Oct. 15, Noon ET

Justin Milner, a lineworker from Yazoo Valley Electric Power Association, missed the gender reveal party for his own baby back home in Mississippi to travel to Florida to help Peace River Electric Cooperative restore power after Hurricane Milton pummeled the state with fierce winds and flooding rains.

“To show our gratitude for his hard work and sacrifice, we gifted him something special to celebrate the upcoming arrival of his little one,” Wauchula-based Peace River said on its Facebook page, which featured photos of Milner holding a basket of baby presents tied with a big pink bow. “Moments like these remind us that the cooperative spirit goes far beyond power lines—it’s about people, family, and community.

“We are so grateful for all the lineworkers who have left their families behind to lend a hand. This is what the cooperative difference is all about. Thank you to all the crews working around the clock, and congratulations to our soon-to-be girl dad!”

Florida’s hardest-hit electric co-ops credited mutual aid from hundreds of co-op lineworkers like Milner for helping them rapidly restore power just days after the hurricane’s Oct. 9 landfall near Sarasota.

The five NRECA member co-ops that sustained the most damage from Milton reported nearly 330,000 outages initially, but they had slashed that number down to just 1,000 by late Tuesday morning. Peace River had restored power to all but about 300 of its 65,450 members. Right after the hurricane hit, the co-op lost power to about 86% of its system.

Florida’s co-op crews have been working alongside mutual aid crews from co-ops in Idaho, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Ohio, Tennessee and Texas, said Alisia Hounshell, director of communications and statewide services at Florida Electric Cooperatives Association. Florida co-ops that were spared by Milton also sent lineworkers to help their neighbors.

There were about 8,700 restoration personnel—lineworkers, vegetation workers and support staff—who rushed into Florida to help, Hounshell said. Most of those were contract crews, but they also included hundreds of co-op employees, she said.

“We could not have executed this rapid restoration without the assistance of additional lineworkers, vegetation crews, damage assessors, caterers, basecamp partners, local law enforcement, local hotels and businesses, and of course, our own Glades Electric team—both on the lines and behind the scenes,” Moore Haven-based Glades Electric Cooperative said on its Facebook page.

Glades restored most of its outages over the weekend and finished the remaining handful by Tuesday morning. Much of the damage being repaired in the final stretch was due to tornadoes that hit the area just before the hurricane made landfall. The co-op initially had 11,000-plus outages.

At one point over the weekend, Glade’s crews had to scramble out of some floodwaters “when a gator took a keen interest in what they were doing,” the co-op said on its Facebook page.

Despite completing the difficult task of restoring power, the co-op said there is still enormous work ahead to rebuild the communities it serves.

“We will be keeping the many in our communities who suffered devastating damage to their homes in our thoughts and prayers,” the co-op said. “Tornadoes touched every single one of the counties we serve.”

Withlacoochee River Electric Cooperative in Dade City reported that about 655 of its 260,600 members were without power Tuesday morning. The co-op had faced 93,000 outages Thursday afternoon in the immediate aftermath of the storm.

“Ongoing work continues … However, some areas are still experiencing flooding, making it unsafe to energize those accounts at this time,” the co-op said Tuesday on Facebook. “We appreciate your understanding and patience as we navigate these circumstances.”

SECO Energy in Sumterville was down to just 41 members without power on Tuesday morning. More than 100,000 of SECO’s 246,743 members lost power at the worst point after the hurricane hit.

“As we continue the restoration effort after Hurricane Milton, SECO wants to take a minute to thank our stellar team of employees, mutual aid crews and vendors that make it happen,” the co-op said on Facebook.

Clay Electric Cooperative reported Tuesday morning that it had restored power to all but five of its 195,500 members. The Keystone Heights-based co-op had about 21,400 outages at the peak of the hurricane.

“We are loving having the electricity back on,” a co-op member wrote on Clay’s Facebook page.

Hurricane Milton hit just two weeks after Hurricane Helene struck Florida and left a devastating path of damage through other states in the Southeast. More than 17,000 co-op members were still without power Tuesday in areas of Georgia and the Carolinas that bore the brunt of Helene’s inland impact.

Erin Kelly is a staff writer for NRECA.