JEA Welcomes Mutual Aid Response to Hurricane Ian

2022-09-28

JACKSONVILLE, FL, Sept. 28, 2022 – More than 2,000JEA team members and out-of-state utility volunteers are standing ready to respond in Northeast Florida to the imminent impacts here from Hurricane Ian.

JEA’s Emergency Operations Center (EOC) is fully activated consistent with the state of emergency now in effect for the City of Jacksonville. The JEA EOC performs around-the-clock storm monitoring and will release timely communications to internal teams, field crews and customers with pertinent storm updates. 

“We want people to be safe, to take care of themselves in their homes. We are working on being prepared as best we can,” JEA Managing Director & CEO Jay Stowe said. “We are prepared for the worst and hoping for the best.”

More than 300 utility personnel from Texas, Alabama and New England are scheduled to arrive at JEA staging areas between tonight and Saturday. The crews will be prepared to assist JEA in responding to our community’s needs as quickly and safely as possible.

In addition, all areas of the utility are now positioned for their dedicated responses to Hurricane Ian, and essential employees are implementing their storm assignments. The utility has mobilized generators and pumps to vulnerable facilities, and resources are available for any restoration deployment post-storm.

According to the National Hurricane Center, Hurricane Ian was upgraded to Category 4 this morning just before landfall in Southwest Florida, and Northeast Florida is now under a Hurricane Watch, as well. The storm likely will produce heavy rain, strong wind and a chance of tornadoes across the region. While it’s still too early to know the full impacts from the storm, JEA is deploying and staging for potential widespread outages and flooding in low-lying areas.

The utility is committed to keeping customers safe through extreme weather and has suspended any service disconnections due to non-payment until Oct. 9. 

In advance of the storm, JEA is closing its Downtown Customer Center, effective as of 5 p.m., Sept. 28. It will remain closed until storm conditions permit it to reopen. Customers can sign in to their jea.com account to make payments and manage their account anytime.

JEA customers also can visit jea.com/storm to learn about storm preparation tips and find other important resources. To report outages, customers can visit jea.com or call 904-665-6000. Customers who have enrolled in outage alerts also can text “OUT” to MyJEA (69532) to report their outage.

JEA will keep customers informed with preparation tips, developments and important notifications via email and social media. Community members also can learn how to prepare for dangerous storms and find other important resources at jea.com.

Customers are encouraged to ensure their contact information is up to date on their jea.com account and to sign up for voice, email or text alerts at jea.com/storm. This will allow JEA to contact customers directly with updates on a power outage.

JEA has worked throughout the year to prepare for severe weather in a number of ways:

• Storm Hardening: JEA has made significant investments to harden our electric, water and sewer systems to make them more resistant to storm-related disruptions. These critical repairs and improvements help us restore power and return to normal operations more quickly after a major storm
• Year-Round Tree Trimming: While strong winds and heavy rains cause their share of storm damage, most storm-related power outages result from tree branches falling on power lines.
• Water & Sewer Upgrades: The utility has made significant investments to upgrade our water and sewer facilities, and has installed backup generators to reduce the risk of storm-related service interruptions.

About JEA

JEA is a not-for-profit, community-owned utility located in Jacksonville, Florida, proudly serving an estimated 505,000 electric, 382,000 water, 302,000 sewer and 22,000 reclaimed water customers. JEA is not owned by investors. It was created by the City of Jacksonville to serve those who live in Jacksonville and in the surrounding communities. The sole purpose of JEA’s business is to ensure the electric, water and sewer demands of its customers are met, both today and for generations to come with the goal to provide reliable services at the best value to our customers while ensuring our precious natural resources are protected.

Category:

• storm