Around 60,600 JEA customers are still without power Thursday afternoon after Hurricane Irma hit the First Coast early Monday morning.
JEA CEO Paul McElroy told our partner News4Jax, the number of outages is now small enough that customers without power can find out when a crew will be assigned to their area, although they still won’t know the exact time power will restored.
McElroy clarified Friday, the utility will call or email individual customers to let them know that crews are working on circuits in their area.
He said tree removal and Irma’s widespread destruction are a couple of factors presenting challenges to restoration.
“It touched the east and the west and the north and the south,” McElroy said. “There is no specific area or one neighborhood or one group or one quadrant that was left untouched. It destroyed our assets across the entire county.”
Related: Map of JEA power outages
He asked customers to remember JEA restoration is 6-to-12 hours behind other areas of the state because the storm passed through Northeast Florida last before moving to Georgia.
“Our restoration continues to track well against local counties that surround Duval County in terms of performance and bringing people back on the power grid,” McElroy told News4Jax.
JEA increased its line crew by nearly 70 workers Thursday with 46 more expected to arrive Friday. They are on top of 700 extra workers brought in as an initial response to the storm.
Irma knocked out power to more than a quarter million JEA customers at its peak.
McElroy said he’ll be monitoring expected rainfall over the next few days as that could present challenges in restoring power.
Updated with clarification 9/15.
Lindsey Kilbride can be reached at lkilbride@wjct.org, 904-358-6359 or on Twitter at@lindskilbride.
