As Hurricane Milton continues to wreak havoc across Florida, leaving millions of residents without power on Thursday, Maine utility crews are en route to aid in relief operations.
“We sent 38 team members with 15 bucket trucks to Florida yesterday to help with hurricane power restoration,” Marissa Minor, a spokeswoman for Versant Power, told Mainebiz on Thursday.
The Bangor-based electric utility also sent workers south during 2021 in the wake of Hurricane Ida and in 2022 to Nova Scotia, Canada.
“This is part of the ‘mutual aid’ process where other utilities are asked to help in times of need,” Minor explained. “The 38 Versant employees volunteered to participate in the program and are eager to help down south.”
Crews departed from the Versant operations center in Hampden at around 11 a.m. on Wednesday and headed to Pennsylvania for the night. They are now back on the road to Florida, Minor said Thursday morning.
Central Maine Power Co. also frequently helps out fellow utilities. CMP executives on Thursday were monitoring the hurricane’s impact before deciding on a course of action, according to spokesman Jonathan Breed.
“Mutual assistance would typically be fielded once a weather event clears an area,” he said.
Hurricane Milton made landfall as a Category 3 storm at about 8:30 p.m. Wednesday near Siesta Key in Sarasota County, Florida, according to the National Hurricane Center. On Thursday morning Milton was tracking offshore but leaving behind powerful winds, tropical rains and a record storm surge.
The storm comes less than two weeks after Hurricane Helene hit Florida, devastating much of the Big Bend region in the northern part of the state.