Florida Public Power Mutual Aid Procedures

FMEA provides mutual aid support to its members. The following are procedures to follow to both request and offer mutual aid services. Any time prior to, during, or after a major storm/hurricane, mutual aid coordinators will make arrangements for emergency assistance. Staff will work with you to either help you find crews or help you provide assistance to others. Prior to major storms, FMEA members are e-mailed a list of phone numbers to call for mutual aid assistance. The telephone numbers listed below are for cell phones that are on at all times.

FMEA Mutual Aid Coordinators

Before the Storm

1. Once Florida becomes inside a projection cone of landfall for a tropical storm or hurricane, FMEA will initiate a daily mutual aid coordination call. A calendar invite and call information will be sent to the FMEA Board of Directors and Mutual Aid Directory Contacts once that occurs.
2. Identify available crews. If the storm is NOT predicted to hit your area, and you have available crews, tell FMEA how many crews you have available to assist others.
3. Determine if you want to pre-plan or pre-stage mutual aid crews. If so, identify the type/numbers of work crews and equipment you think you need and communicate that to FMEA coordinator so they can begin to arrange the assistance for you.
4. If you anticipate needing mutual aid, make sure to have logistical arrangements secured for all the responding crews: hotel/lodging, food, laundry. Do this in advance of the storm in case availability is limited post storm. 

After the Storm

1. FMEA will continue its daily mutual aid coordination call until all needs are met from all FMEA member utilities.
2. Call FMEA after the storm and update mutual aid assistance request if needed – including any material or specialized equipment needs or additional crews you may have available to send.
3. Report your outage status. Once you experience any storm related outages, outages (number of customers without power) MUST be reported to FMEA every 3 hours at these intervals: 5 am, 8 am, 11 am, 2 pm, 5 pm, 8 pm. This information is then given to the State Emergency Operations Center and reported to the Governor and all state and federal entities.

If you received Mutual Aid assistance, please do not release the crews without alerting FMEA first in case they are needed at another utility.