Tropical Storm Ian pummels Florida

Crews need winds in Florida to get below 35 mph before they can go out to assess damage to power infrastructure, said David Reuter, spokesperson for Florida Power and Light.

The company has about 1.1 million customers out of power at present, he told CNN, adding that while there is a possibility that this number grows, the company has already been restoring power in parts of Florida where it is safe to go out.

As daylight comes, the company will be able to better survey the devastation from the storm.

“We’re going to have crews out there as soon as it’s safe to do so. We have to wait until winds get below about 35 miles an hour in order to do that. Once we’re able to do that, it should take about 24 hours for us to have an assessment of the extensive nature — or maybe not so in certain parts — to figure out where we can start restoring the power,” he explained.

“Our goal here is to get the power back on as quickly as possible but most importantly, we’re going to do that safely,” he added.

Depending on what the survey of devastation shows, this restoration process could take days.

“Our hope would be that we can do it in a matter of days for those customers that we’re able to get the power back on, we’re able to get back into those regions. But if … we go in and find out we’re not just looking at stringing wire and drying a few thing out, you know, this could be a matter of weeks depending how extensive the damage is on the west coast,” he said.