Former Customers Make FirstEnergy Crews Feel Closer to Home During Hurricane Milton Restoration

FirstEnergy line workers and support personnel who assisted power restoration efforts across Florida after Hurricane Milton had a chance to get a little taste of home, thanks to former customers now living in the Sunshine State.

In Daytona Beach, a former Jersey Central Power & Light (JCP&L) customer originally from Cookstown, New Jersey, welcomed JCP&L crews to the area with a quick-witted joke about “being a Jerseyan” as crews repaired damaged wire to restore his power.  

Near St. Petersburg, Ohio Edison crews heard chants of “Go Guardians!”  from Ohio transplants.

The brief conversations and shared regional references brought a sense of normalcy, both to the residents and the crews working to get the lights back on.

Ed Cole, who moved to Manatee County from Toms River, New Jersey, 28 years ago, chatted with JCP&L workers in Sarasota and shared his experience with Milton.

“This hurricane was really bad for our region,” said Cole. “The barrier islands are just destroyed. I can’t even get to the islands because the roads and beaches are no longer there.” 

Cole, whose family still lives in Monmouth and Ocean counties in New Jersey, compared Milton to his family’s experience with Hurricane Sandy in 2012.

“My brother lost his home in Sandy, but my mom had no flooding because she was high up in Toms River and Pine Beach,” said Cole. “Here, I feel safe at 16.5 feet elevation, so you get a little complacent, a little relaxed.”

That complacency was tested as Milton’s eye crossed the area.

“When the back side of the eye hit, that’s when we lost power,” he said. “Nothing really rattles me, but going through that back half, now you’re sitting in the pitch black with the storm’s roar for hours. It was horrific." 

After spending two days heading into his office to cool off in air conditioning and get the chance to shower, he was excited to see his hometown power company, JCP&L, getting the lights back on.

According to Dennis Pavaghadi, one of several FirstEnergy operations directors overseeing the company’s contingent of 580 utility workers, southern hospitality was on display during JCP&L crews’ nearly three-week stay in Georgia and Florida, assisting with Helene efforts before transitioning to Milton aid.

“People return home for the first time to see that they have lost a lot, but they still take the time to thank our crews working in their neighborhood and offer them cold drinks and food,” he said.

FirstEnergy is a member of multiple electric utility mutual assistance groups that work cooperatively to restore service to customers when a natural disaster causes large-scale power outages. Mutual assistance allows utilities to pool their resources to help restore power to customers faster. FirstEnergy and its employees have been honored numerous times with the Edison Electric Institute (EEI) "Emergency Assistance Award" for the mutual assistance the company has provided during winter and summer storms. 

FirstEnergy line workers and support personnel were in Florida assisting Duke Energy and Florida Power & Light with restoration efforts for about 10 days.

“The electric utility industry relies heavily on mutual assistance,” said Pavaghadi. “No individual company has the resources to essentially rebuild an entire grid or face the kind of catastrophic damage they experienced in Florida.”