As part of our effort to bring back service to storm-affected regions in Southwest Florida, we want to update our customers on what’s happening in the area.
Virtually all of our facilities in Southwest Florida are on generator power because commercial power has not yet been restored. Please keep in mind that while homes and small business may have not lost power or had it restored, this does not always mean that power has been restored to commercial locations such as our network. Still progress has been made.
Our teams are now deploying generators into neighborhoods so that we can bring our services back on line even when our equipment does not yet have commercial power. For example, as noted above, in the past 24 hours alone we have restored services for more than 55,000 customers in Southwest Florida. We’ve repaired nearly 5,000 downed drops since the storm – meaning the connection between the pole and the home. We’re aware of significant damage in Naples and in Bonita so we expect that restoration to be ongoing.
Our goal is to do everything possible to restore services as quickly and safely as we can.
Our network maintenance teams are out in the field doing tough and dangerous work. Many of the fiber lines in our network have been cut from downed trees so our teams have been working as quickly as possible to restore those lines. On Wednesday our teams were crawling on their hands and knees in and around the area through mangled trees to locate and repair our lines.
Crews report seeing many power lines wrapped around poles and wrapped around our lines which requires that we get clearance from the power companies that it is safe to work on these lines before our crews can make repairs. There are also reports of damage to our lines caused by fires when the power lines on the poles become reenergized with commercial power. It’s a complex restoration process but our network maintenance crews are working hard day and night to bring services back to our customers’ homes.
Please visit xfinity.com/florida to find more information or alert us to ongoing service issues – downed lines, continued service interruptions – after power is restored.