Hundreds of line crews prepare for possible outages from Hurricane Isaias

Many crews came in Friday night to prepare for the storm

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – As Hurricane Isaias approaches the Florida coast, hundreds of power crews are already in position and ready to respond in case of power outages.

[RELATED: LIVE TRACK: Forecast cone, computer models, updates as Hurricane Isaias approaches Florida]

“Our restoration work force is 10,000 men and women who are working on this restoration effort,” said Marie Bertot, of Florida Power and Light.

Crews gathered Saturday morning at the Daytona International Speedway, linemen and women came from states like Kentucky and Texas to help Floridians.

“They are heading in different areas in Florida these particular trucks you’re seeing are going to Miami and we will have people rolling in today that are going to our service territory,” Bertot explained.

And because of the pandemic, Berto says crews are prepared with supplies to keep them safe from COVID-19.

[MORE: State of emergency declared on Florida’s east coast as Hurricane Isaias approaches]

“Every day they get in and screening and temperature taking so we are keeping them safe and we also picked up a lot of sanitation equipment and they are having to implement additional sanitation protocols,” Bertot said.

She said workers will head to the most affected areas when it's safe to do so.

“Based on modeling and forecast information we have a good idea where the damages may be and that’s where we set up to be able to restore power safely and quickly as possible for our customers,” Bertot said.

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About the Author

Ezzy Castro is a multimedia journalist on News 6's morning team who has a passion for telling the stories of the people in the Central Florida community. Ezzy worked at WFOR CBS4 in South Florida and KBMT in Beaumont, Texas, where she covered Hurricane Harvey in 2017. Being from Miami, Ezzy loves Cuban coffee and croquetas!

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