After Hurricane Debby cleared the area, Monticello City Manager Seth Lawless jumped in his car to take stock of the damage.
“As I’m driving around I see a lot of homeowners and citizens out raking and piling up their debris and cleaning up their property," Lawless says.
The storm brought down several trees and a few caused what Lawless calls “major damage.” But he says the biggest concern facing most Monticello residents is the power outage.
“Here we are with no power in Monticello day two," Lawless says. "Most of Monticello was out three days last year.”
Debby barreled into the Panhandle Monday as a Category 1 hurricane, leaving widespread power outages in its wake. Officials are urging patience as crews work to turn the lights back on. Duke Energy hopes to restore power to residents in areas it considers hardest hit by 11:59 p.m. Wednesday. That includes customers in Jefferson, Taylor, Wakulla and Madison counties.
Duke spokesperson Jeff Brooks says crews are working to address two concerns—damage to local power lines and polls, as well as damage to the transmission system.
While crews work to restore power, neighbors work to help each other
“The way power flows from our power plants to communities is it travels across our transmission system, which is equivalent to the interstate of the power grid," Brooks says. "That carries power from our plants to the communities that we serve and once they get to those communities we use substations to reduce that voltage. Think of that like an off ramp off the interstate. Then we push that out into the communities on the poles and wires that you see. So we’ve had some damage on our transmission system that’s being repaired.”
And Brooks says work is under way on the local lines as well.
“I was just over on Wakeenah Highway and seeing crews over there working to remove a tree and restore multiple power lines across several poles," Brooks says.
In Monticello generators rumble as neighbors come together to help each other recover following Debby.
Michelle Boucher is making sure her neighbors have clean laundry. She has her washing machine hooked up to a generator. But without electricity her dryer won’t work. So, she’s using her fence as a makeshift laundry line.
“I got a line going two ways in the dining room for the stuff that can’t come out here and be seen and I got the other ones in the direct sun so it will be done by the end of the day," Boucher says. "I got two more blankets and a load of sheets, but I’m not going to do the clothes until I can get to the dryer. If that doesn’t happen and we don’t get lights in the next day we’re going to have to start [roughing] it.”
Boucher, who is a Duke Energy customer, says based on the number of line trucks she’s seen in her neighborhood, she’s hopeful her electricity will be running again soon.
