Published August 30. 2019 12:11PM
PPL Electric Utilities is sending workers, trucks and equipment to Florida to support Florida Power and Light and Duke Energy Florida in responding to outages expected from Hurricane Dorian.
More than 40 people left Friday morning from the Lehigh Valley and Lancaster areas.
Of the 40 workers deployed, 36 were line workers.
As of Friday morning, Dorian was centered about 255 miles northeast of the Bahamas. Its winds had increased slightly to 110 mph and the storm was moving northwest at 12 mph (19 kph). Forecasters said it was expected to keep on strengthening and become a Category 3 later in the day.
Coastal areas in the Southeast could get 6 to 12 inches of rain, with 15 inches in some places, triggering life-threatening flash floods, the hurricane center said.
PPL crews are often called to help restore power in other regions as part of mutual assistance agreements.
Most recently, crews assisted PECO with outages in the Philadelphia area.
Crews also went to Puerto Rico to help restore power after Hurricane Maria and went to Florida after Hurricane Irma.
This GOES-16 satellite image taken Thursday, Aug. 29, 2019, at 14:20 UTC and provided by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), shows Hurricane Dorian, right, moving over open waters of the Atlantic Ocean. The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Dorian was expected to grow into a potentially devastating Category 3 hurricane before hitting the U.S. mainland late Sunday or early Monday somewhere between the Florida Keys and southern Georgia. (NOAA via AP)