The visit was made days after Hurricane Milton tore through southwest Florida as a Category 3 hurricane.
President Joe Biden traveled to St. Petersburg, Florida, on Oct. 13 to announce $612 million for Department of Energy projects to strengthen electrical grids in the areas affected by Hurricanes Milton and Helene.
The allocations include $94 million for two initiatives in Florida: $47 million for Switched Source, in partnership with Florida Power and Light (FPL), and $47 million for Gainesville Regional Utilities. The energy companies service multiple portions of the state.
“This funding will not only restore power but will make the region’s power system stronger and more capable and reduce the frequency and duration of power outages while extreme weather events become more frequent,” Biden said.
Florida remains one of the most vulnerable U.S. states to hurricane activity. FPL’s service area includes Sarasota County, which took a direct hit from Milton on the evening of Oct. 9. More than 900,000 Floridians remain without power on the morning of Oct. 13, according to poweroutage.us.
Switched Source will work with FPL to dispatch the distribution automation device Phase-EQ to optimize power flow in distribution circuits while unlocking more than 200 megawatts of system capacity and improving circuit reliability in the areas most prone to long-term power outages.
The funding for Gainesville Regional Utilities will work to strengthen the area’s electrical grid and lead to faster power restoration, along with tools to help with field teams during outages.
“This is a whole government effort, from state and local to FEMA to U.S. Coast Guard, Army Corps of Engineers, the Energy Department, Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Defense, just to name a few,” Biden said.
“FEMA has delivered 1.2 million meals, over 300,000 liters of water, 2 million gallons of fuel, and so far, we’ve installed 100 satellite terminals to restore communications in impacted areas so families can talk, contact their loved ones to be sure everything’s okay, and be able to reach out for help as well.”
Biden approved a major disaster declaration for Florida on the evening of Oct. 11, opening federal funds to survivors for temporary housing and home repairs, along with low-cost loans to cover uninsured property losses. Funds are also available for business owners recovering from Milton’s impact.
Biden also directed the Federal Emergency Management Agency to open disaster recovery sites throughout the affected areas so that residents could learn about available federal support following the storm. The Department of Transportation’s Federal Aviation Administration allowed FPL to fly large drones to assess damage to its power grid as ground crews rapidly work to restore power.
“Power has also been restored to over 2 million people in a matter of days, and thanks to tens of thousands of power workers from 43 states and Canada working nonstop, even more people will have more power restored soon,” Biden said.
As residents around the state have had their power restored, others should have theirs restored in the coming days.
“I’m pleased to say that about 75 percent of the power has been restored across Florida, and … by the end of Tuesday, the vast majority will be online,” Department of Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said.
The Coast Guard and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are working to reopen the Port of Tampa so that fuel, food, water, and basic goods can flow into the region again, as residents clean up storm damage.
More than 50,000 linemen from 42 states, the District of Columbia, and Canada, are in Florida working to restore power to the areas that are still in the dark.
More than 1,000 federal responders were on the ground in Florida ahead of the storm, with more than 1,400 search-and-rescue personnel pre-staged to help with relief efforts. Florida activated more than 6,000 members of the National Guard and was ready to activate a further 3,000 guardsmen from Florida and other states to support the state as it responds to the storm’s impacts.
Milton made landfall near Florida’s Siesta Key on Oct. 9 at roughly 8:30 p.m. as a Category 3 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 120 mph.