ORLANDO, Fla. – Considering how powerful tropical systems have the potential to be, there’s a good chance a storm could knock out the power at your home this hurricane season.
While there’s no way to guarantee you won’t lose power, experts like Tim Trudell, with Orlando Utilities Commission, say there are a few things you can do to help minimize your chances of an outage.
His first tip: Limit the number of items around your home that could become projectiles during a storm.
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“If you have a house with a yard, any of those things in the yard can become projectiles,” Trudell said. “So that’s a very common thing, where people leave things in the yard that become projectiles people have been hurt by those or they can enter power lines for that matter.”
Trudell said tree trimming is something homeowners should look into before the start of the season.
“Certainly in the case of trees that are very low and close to power lines,” Trudell said. “Those are the types of things that you can do now.”
He said the tree trimming should be left to the professionals for safety reasons.
Something else Trudell recommends doing now, before a storm is in Central Florida’s forecast, is putting together a plan. Since there’s no way to guarantee you won’t lose power for an extended period of time, Trudell says it’s best for you to decide now what you and your family will do should you lose power during a storm, instead of trying to put together a last-minute plan during a more high-stress period of time once the storm hits.
“I think the biggest thing you can do is just take a moment, talk to everybody in your family and say, ‘If this happens, let’s talk a little bit about how we’re going to handle it,’” he said.
Some questions you might ask:
- How are we going to handle a power outage at our home?
- Where will we go?
- What medications do we need to have?
- Who are our emergency contacts?
- How are we going to get our information when we lose power?
You can use this free tool to help build the emergency plan that’s right for you and your family.
Aside from preparing, Trudell said the best piece of advice he can offer Central Floridians, especially those who lose power at their homes, is “be patient.”
Trudell said OUC’s line technicians take what they do very seriously and they know how much Floridians rely on their power, which is why they’re away from their families during dangerous situations, working to turn our lights back on after a disaster.
[DEVELOP A PLAN: Use this tool to build a custom emergency plan this hurricane season]
“If they could, they would restore everyone as fast as they could. They would flip a switch and do it. Unfortunately, if there’s 1000s of tree trees down, it’s just impossible to do that,” Trudell said. “So I would just stress the patience.”
Trudell says people are often in such a hurry to get back to normal after a storm that they try to take matters into their own hands when, in some cases, they shouldn’t, especially when dealing with any type of wire or cable.
“You do not want to take that into your own hands. And the thing is, most people, even people that work in the industry, can’t tell a cable line, sometimes from powerline to telephone. So, treat every downed line, like it is a live, energized power line, even if it’s not. That’s the biggest thing. Look at that thing like it is a pure hazard. Could be a downed cable line, but call it in, play it safe, and stay away,” Trudell said.
Trudell said after a storm, OUC sends out a team of surveyors, trained damage assessors who go out and immediately assess the field.
“We’re getting certain pictures and digital information back into us, but having those people in the field because they can spot it and they can say, ‘Look, that... we need to address that right away.’ he said. That is absolutely imperative.”
Trudell said OUC has more technology than ever that notifies them of outages to help them restore power in a timely fashion but added it is still helpful for residents to report outages where they live, just as long as they don’t over-report them.
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“It’s important to go ahead and report it once. It’s not necessary to report multiple times,” he said.
OUC customers can report outages by texting “out” to 69682. Customers can also check outage maps to get updates as crews work to restore power.
The company also has digital meters that constantly send them information, which Trudell says helps crews restore power to more people, sooner.
“I think that’s probably good for the consumer, because they may not realize all of the data that’s coming into us, which helps us prioritize our restoration. You know, we’re gonna always hit those hospitals and fire stations, police stations first, but we’re then going to look at, ‘OK, if we send a crew over here and we fix this area, and it impacts the most number of customers, then let’s send them there versus a smaller number,’” he said.
Finally, Trudell encouraged anyone planning to use a generator in the event of a power outage to brush up on their generator safety. Improper use of a generator can not only be deadly to the user, but also to line technicians.
[READ: Hooking up your generator like this can be deadly for utility workers | STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE: How to safely use and store your generator]
“Number one, make sure that you’re using a ventilated space because there’s carbon monoxide that comes out of there. That’s a very dangerous thing for the actual person using the generator. The second thing is if you’re not using a contractor to install it, making sure that you’re just feeding certain appliances, and you’re not back-feeding the system because you can incorrectly install a generator, it goes into your circuit breaker, out of your circuit breaker, into the meter system and through the electric distribution system. That’s a real problem for line technicians that might be out trying to repair downed lines because now they think they have an energized line, de-energized and a generator comes out and pushes electric fluid back towards them. That’s very, very dangerous. We don’t want that to happen,” Trudell said.
Be sure to review this step-by-step guide before using a generator.
You can also get more power safety and preparation tips from Trudell by watching the full interview in the video player at the top of this story.
For more information on how to report power outages and what to do before, during and after a storm, visit ClickOrlando.com/hurricane.
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