FPL: Most in SWFL should have power back by next weekend but for some it could be months

It may be months before some Southwest Florida coastal areas hammered by Hurricane Ian have their power restored, according to Florida Power & Light Co.

"We are repairing in most places outside of, right along the barrier islands and the beaches and the immediate coast line of Southwest Florida," FPL CEO Eric Silagy said Saturday night. "Those areas are going to be rebuilding, and unfortunately for those who live there, we are looking at weeks or months. Frankly, many homes and businesses will not be able to accept power when that power is restored."

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Lee County had 166,000 FPL addresses without power Saturday night while the Collier tally was 77,650. When including other utilities, Collier had 97,819 unable to turn on their lights or 37% overall. And in Lee, it was 341,337 or 72%.

That's a slight improvement from Saturday morning, when 40% of Collier and 73% of Lee woke up without electricity.

"The damage continues to amaze me," said Silagy, who has spent the better part of the past three days in Southwest Florida. "There are a lot of challenges that we do have ahead of us."

For the rest of Southwest Florida, he said he expected power to be restored for most by next weekend.

"We expect to have power be essentially restored to everybody (that) can accept the power by Sunday, Oct. 9, so a week from Sunday," Silagy said. "We are going to be resetting equipment, and we're going to be digging out sand that is in a lot of the equipment that got flooded, and storm surge hit. (It) is going to take time. That's why we believe it's going to take a full week. Our goal is to do it faster."

Isolated outages expected in Southwest Florida

But just because your neighbor has electricity, it doesn't mean you will.

"There are buildings that are just completely leveled or structurally damaged to the point that they're not going to be able to accept power," Silagy said. "There is structural damage to a lot of the buildings that I saw today. And that means that those buildings must be inspected before the power can come on. Just because power is restored in the area doesn't mean your home or business will be able to accept it."

He recommends hiring an electrician, especially "if there's any extensive damage to the roof, to the structure of the house," Silagy said. "You can make sure it is safe before you hook the power back up because otherwise you can burn the house down. You can burn the business down, and people will be in harm's way."

By 5:30 p.m. Saturday, 1.5 million FPL customers in the Sunshine State had had their power restored or 70% of those who had had outages in connection with Ian, he said.

More than 21,000 workers are part of the overall statewide effort.

"There are over 1,350 utility linemen working in our county to restore power," Collier County Commissioner Rick LoCastro said. "This storm produced significant damage to our grid. (Storm) surge damage to utilities has been severe. With Hurricane Ian, it’s much more than just straightening out poles and reconnecting lines the way it was during (2017's) Hurricane Irma."

Cape Coral experienced a 100% power outage, and at 7 a.m. Saturday began "the process of restoring power to the city,” Fire Chief Ryan Lamb said. “We are continuing to work with over 30 vendors and city crew to continue that first push effort to get the debris cleared out of the roadways and work with damage assessment on not only our buildings but our power grid."

The lack of electricity has been crippling for businesses and key institutions, which are also trying to overcome damage and other hurdles.

School closings extended

Collier schools decided Saturday night it plans to have students return Thursday. And in Lee County, a lack of electricity played a role in schools being called off next week.

"Based on our most recent assessments of schools, as well as no power or water, we have made the decision to close all schools and district offices next week," the district said in a statement. "Reopening our schools is one of our top priorities. We will do so in a manner that is sensible and effective."

Florida Gulf Coast University plans to reopen by Oct. 10. Florida SouthWestern State College has the same goal and plans to extend the schedule for its fall term by about a week.

"FSW facilities continues to work with vendors on campus repairs and are monitoring power, water and sewer conditions to determine return to campuses. FSW student affairs is assessing our residence hall to determine when student move-in is possible,"  FSW said in a statement. "At this time, fall term classes will be extended through Dec. 10 to include final exams. (These) dates may need to be adjusted based on conditions."

RSW opening Wednesday, with limited flights

Southwest Florida International Airport will open Wednesday for limited commercial flights, although some amenities may be limited and you are urged to get there early as roads may be hazardous and some airlines will be operating from different concourses than usual.

Here’s what you need to know:

* The initial hours of operation for security checkpoints will be 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. with flights operating from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.

More from RSW: Southwest Florida International Airport is opening Wednesday with limited flights

Based at the Naples Daily News, Columnist Phil Fernandez (pfernandez@gannett.com) writes In the Know as part of the USA TODAY NETWORK. Support Democracy and subscribe to a newspaper.

Journalists Laura Layden and  Luis Zambrano contributed to this report.

This article originally appeared on Naples Daily News: Hurricane Ian: Power may not be restored for months for some