HILLIARD, Fla. – Crews were working around the clock Wednesday to restore power to thousands of people affected by the overnight winter storm that impacted Southeast Georgia and Northeast Florida.
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Officials with Okefenoke REMC said Wednesday morning there were nearly 13,000 customers without power in Southeast Georgia and around 3,000 customers in Northeast Florida.
Okefenoke REMC’s Director of Communications Michele Hutchins told News4JAX that crews might not be able to restore power for all impacted customers Wednesday, and added that the outages in the Nassau County area were not in one spot, but more widespread.
In order to help make the power restoration process faster, Hutchins said the company prepared in advance and has about 250 extra crews working around the clock.
While the winter mix has now come through the area, that doesn’t mean it is completely in the clear.
“The other issue with this situation is as much as the ice weighs limbs down, when things start to warm up they can snap back up. So you can get it at the onset and on the back end. So it’s just something to be mindful of,” Hutchins said.
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Hutchins said once the ice starts to melt, there could be potential for more power outages.
“There’s a potential. There could be, it all depends on how much things are weighed down and whether they slowly go back up or snap back up,” Hutchins said.
Hutchins said crews will be working as late as they possibly can to restore power to all customers as fast as possible.