After Hurricane Wilma and the lengthy delay in getting
power restored for many residents of Miami-Dade county, all indications from
FPL were that many of the issues that hampered restoration would be taken care
of so that customers would not have to face the inconveniences as they did
during the previous storm. Wrong!! From all indications, FPL’s ability to meet the
needs of residents after a hurricane has not improved since Hurricane Wilma’s
occurrence over 10 years ago. Those who were privileged to get their power
restored early after Hurricane Irma may not agree but the hundreds of thousands
of those customers who have been waiting to see at least one of the 20,000 or
so electrical workers or even a utility truck may beg to differ. There is much
to be considered from the poor performance of FPL which in part cannot be blamed
on the outside crew but the highly paid President, Eric Silagy, and his administrators who must
bear that responsibility for inconveniencing so many once again due to their
poor planning practices. Some of the considerations are as follows:
Getting access to a live FLP rep on the phone is near
impossible since no effort or prior plans had been made to increase customer
service staff. Further, airing an announcement that customers only need to go
online to get information is annoying when one considers that so many do not
have electricity, WiFi, or other telecommunication connections to go online.
Who is considered priority? Certainly the schools, major
chain stores, government offices, hospitals must be included on that list to
show the nation that some sort of normalcy has returned to a city. However,
living between two medium-sized cities with police stations that still do not
have power apart from their generators causes some question as to who are on
the priority list.
FPL spokespersons have mentioned that nursing homes are
considered priority. Yet, restoring electricity to the Hollywood Hills nursing
home where eight patient lost their lives was not considered when power was restored
to the adjacent hospital. Surely, there must have been a sign outside this
large nursing home to indicate it is a place for the elderly. FPL’s quick
denial that they were not told the nursing home should be given priority status
is just a poor excuse after such a horrific tragedy. Furthermore, there are so
many elderly and sick persons who are not residing in nursing homes who are
still waiting for one of the electric trucks to make an appearance in their
areas or see one of the 20,000 electrical workers that FPL spokespersons have
been bragging about. A caregivers’ recent call to a radio station about her 106
year old patient show that there are individual priorities that are greatly
impacted by the lack of electricity.
Having a down line in ones’ home does not seem to even
matter to FPL. Such is the case of a customer who called the company to report
that a powerline went down in his yard and was gashing fire. He was told by a
FPL rep that a utility truck was on the way. He called a radio station days later to report
that he is still waiting for this truck.
Without a doubt, FPL overall handling of power
restoration especially in the northern communities of Miami deserves an “F” grade. The company’s poor power restoration abilities indicate
that competition is greatly needed in the state of Florida so that there are other
options for customers than relying solely on FPL. Let’s watch and see if any of
our elected politicians will step up to the plate and introduce a proposal to
improve the electricity needs of the state since FPL is just not cutting it. But then again, these may be the privileged group whose power is restored promptly. --- North Miami Dade Resident
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