The Alabama Power Company has been working through the weekend to restore power to the more than 504,000 customers who lost electricity due to Hurricane Zeta. As of Sunday night, 65,000 Alabama Power customers have not had power restored.
“We expect to have service restored to 95 percent of affected customers by Tuesday,” Alabama Power Company Spokesperson Katie Bolton told the Alabama Political Reporter. “Damage is widespread, similar to what we experienced after Hurricane Katrina and April 27. We have made tremendous progress.”
We expect to have 95% of affected customers restored by Tuesday. The hardest hit areas of Calhoun, Chilton, Clarke, Clay, Dallas, Randolph and Talladega counties will likely extend later in the week.
— Alabama Power (@alabamapower) November 2, 2020
Most of the state suffered damage, but Mobile County was especially hard hit.
Bolton said that outages are down to 16,000 in central Alabama.
Congressman Bradley Byrne said, “Zeta gave us a real pounding, and many areas are just beginning the clean up process. The storm had an especially serious impact in north Mobile County, Washington County, and Clarke County. My staff and I stand ready to assist our city, county, and state partners to ensure folks get the help they need to clean up and rebuild.”
87.1 percent of APCO customers who lost power after Hurricane Zeta have had power restored. It is an enormous logistical effort to repair this level of damage to the state’s power grid.
The company’s crews are working with more than 1,700 lineworkers and support personnel from 19 states and Canada to restore power. Beyond the line crews there are thousands of other APCO employees servicing the trucks and getting power poles, transformers, cable, and other supplies to the crews that are working around the clock.
“Supply Chain Management is a key component at Alabama Power and Southern Company when it comes to restoring service during widespread outages like we’re experiencing in the aftermath of Hurricane Zeta,” said Coy Fredd, Alabama Power Materials Management general manager. “Hurricane Zeta did extensive damage to our infrastructure, requiring replacement and rebuilding of the system. We work hard to ensure our crews are not waiting on necessary material as they work diligently to restore service. Supply Chain field personnel are working hard across the system to get things done.”
Alabama Power Fleet Services are not only servicing the Alabama Power Company’s fleet of trucks, but also those of the other line crews who are here from other states to help restore power to our community.
“The Fleet Services team works hard behind the scenes during storm support,” said Melissa Stewart, Fleet Technical Services manager at Alabama Power. “We are humbled and honored to be a part of this. The team truly enjoys being able to support and serve our Power Delivery customers from the setup and breakdown of staging area equipment, providing fuel support and performing mechanic repairs as needed.”
Fleet Service teams are working on the trucks, doing maintenance, often after the line crews are done for the day.
Hurricane Zeta hit Louisiana as a category two hurricane on Wednesday before ripping through Mississippi and Alabama. The storm did an enormous amount of damage across the footprint of the Southern Company, the parent of Alabama Power.
Because Zeta was so fast-moving, it did not lose much of its strength as it moved inland. Much of the state experienced tropical-storm-force winds. There is significant, widespread damage throughout the state.
Remember that when you are out driving on the roads that there are line crews working along roadways all across the state. Cities, counties and homeowners are also still working on debris removal so drive slowly and give yourself more time to get where you are going while out.
Many people depend on medical devices to maintain their health. Many of those devices depend on electricity. Mobile County Emergency Management Agency explains: “Hurricane Zeta has left many sections of Mobile County without power. To assist those in need, the Mobile County Emergency Management Agency has requested that the Mobile County Health Department set up locations at some of its Family Health medical centers to allow residents to charge their medical and personal devices.”
“Due to the aftereffects from Hurricane Zeta, MCHD is providing multiple charging hubs for the community to charge medical and personal devices,” said Dr. Stephanie Woods-Crawford, the executive director of prevention and wellness. “We will be at the Family Health’s Citronelle Health Center from noon to 4 p.m. We will also be set up at the Keeler Wellness Express and Semmes Health Center during clinic hours of operation.”
Medical devices will have priority over other electronic devices for the charging stations. Individuals should bring their own charging cords and adaptors. MCHD would like to remind the public that they can charge devices at their own risk. MCHD is not responsible for any loss or damage to their equipment.
The locations include:
- Family Health’s Citronelle Clinic 19250 Mobile St. N, Citronelle, Al 36522
- Keeler Wellness Express 251 N Bayou St, Mobile, AL 36603
- Semmes Clinic 3810 Wulff Rd E, Semmes, AL 36575
The United Way is providing assistance to those in need: 211 United Way Assistance, if you need assistance with your property and to report damages please contact United Way 211. For assistance please call 2-1-1 or the toll-free number at 888-421-1266 or go to the website.
