Fort Lauderdale and New York: When more than 7.4 million homes and businesses are without power after a hurricane, utility workers tend to get noticed a bit more than usual. That’s what Gus Beyersdorf, 40, and his colleague Nick Jensen, 32, utility workers from Wisconsin, found out while inspecting power lines in Florida on Monday. Between 2,000 and 3,000 utility workers from out-of-state are staying at BB&T Stadium in Broward County, which is home to the National Hockey League’s Florida Panthers, said Beyersdorf. A total of almost 4.5 million Florida Power & Light customers have been affected by the storm, with about 1 million getting service restored, mostly by automated devices. “It took a week for Matthew,” Jensen said, referring to a hurricane that last year did not make landfall in Florida but caused power outages.

Source: New Strait Times September 11, 2017 23:03 UTC