Crews from as far away as Texas and New York are on standby to help with power and debris removal after Hurricane Milton.
Just two weeks after Hurricane Helene left thousands without power, the City of Gainesville and Gainesville Regional Utilities, or GRU, are rallying the troops once again for Milton, which is expected to be a Category 3 hurricane as it makes landfall in the Tampa Bay area.
The storm, which is moving onshore as of Wednesday at 3 p.m., was already spinning tornadoes throughout South Florida on Wednesday around noon.
David Warm, communications director at GRU, said the company is planning to have out-of-state aid assistance from Riviera Utilities of Alabama as well as Lubbock Power & Light of Texas. GRU also plans to have extra tree crews traveling all the way from New York to help with the damage.
While GRU will have some outside help, Warm says there may be fewer mutual aid crews in the area, as many have been dispatched to areas more south of Gainesville.
He told customers to expect extended outages and use caution.
“We urge customers to never approach downed power lines or trees on wires,” Warm said.
He also asked customers to reduce their water usage.
“This helps cut down flows to our water reclamation facilities and ultimately helps prevent backups to our wastewater system and potentially people’s homes,” he said.
Jen Grice, director of emergency management on the Alachua County Board of County Commissioners, said Gainesville should expect tropical storm-force winds with stronger winds toward the southern portion of the county.
“We saw a ton of trees and power lines down in Helene," she said, "and I think just in general we have more trees that are probably weakened because of the strong winds from Helene, so we do anticipate quite a few downed trees for this one as well."
Grice urged the community to be patient in the restoration process. While the area has five utility providers, she still expects thousands of customers won’t have power.
The Florida Forest Service will start working as soon as the storm has ended to clear trees out of roadways so emergency vehicles can assist the area, Grice added.
Her emergency management team as well as Alachua County Fire Rescue will be on hand to help the community after the storm. Once the area is in a stable condition, these teams will then deploy to more damaged areas of the state, those closer to the Gulf Coast.
While there is no mandatory evacuation for the area, county officials advise Gainesville residents to stay inside and use caution both during and after Hurricane Milton.
“I think the biggest thing here, where we just had a storm about a week and a half ago, is to think about the things that you wish you had done with Hurricane Helene and make sure you do those things with the storm,” she said.