About 160,000 customers in Florida and Alabama were still without power Monday morning, three days after Hurricane Isaias made landfall near Destin, Florida, as a Category 2 storm. Peak outages reached roughly 950,000, according to the Edison Electric Institute, with Florida Power & Light accounting for 435,000 of them. FPL said it expected to restore service to 85% of its affected customers by the end of Monday, a downward revision from its earlier 95% estimate.
FPL said damage assessments revealed more severe and widespread tree damage than initially expected. The utility deployed nearly 17,000 workers from 29 states and credited smart-grid technology with avoiding more than 130,000 outages, adding that underground lines performed more than eight times better than overhead lines. Duke Energy Florida and Alabama Power also reported progress, with Duke saying strategic grid improvements helped speed restoration and Alabama Power restoring service to 90% of customers by Sunday. The Edison Electric Institute's CEO said sustained investments in a stronger, smarter grid helped utilities respond quickly.
The storm also disrupted Gulf Coast energy production. AccuWeather analysts estimated that nearly 63% of offshore oil production and 57% of natural gas production in the Gulf were paused before landfall, with almost one-third of platforms evacuated. AccuWeather's Dan DePodwin said there could be short-term increases in gas prices, but because the storm's worst impacts were east of major production and refining areas, a long-term supply issue is not currently expected.