M. J. Electric, along with many other electrical workers nationwide, stepped up in a time of need and moved toward the hurricane while many were evacuating. Crews started to mobilize on September 26th, two days before Ian made landfall in Florida. MJE deployed a total of 235 employees split between crews from 6 regions; Detroit, Chicago, Greenville, Iowa, Leesport, and Minnesota. After staging, our crews assisted Tampa Electric (TECO), Duke Energy, and Florida Power & Light to restore power to their customers across two different states. Ian caused approximately 4 million Florida residents and around 1.1 million people across the Carolinas to lose power and is tied as the 5th strongest hurricane to hit the contiguous United States, with wind speeds of 150 MPH.
TECO Regional Manager, Gerald Brigham, praised M. J. Electric, stating: “I wanted to highlight a group of Journeyman Lineworkers that far exceeded our expectations from a contractor perspective. M. J. Electric was the sole foreign resource in the Dade City area. They didn’t turn down any work and got all Dade City customers restored well ahead of projections. We moved them to Plant City Service Area and they are still performing to that same high standard. I personally witnessed this group work today and they are a close-knit bunch that takes pride in the work they do. This particular job was 8-10 spans of primary & neutral that went through hilly and swampy terrain. Several line workers put on their climbing gear and went to work. They finished this job 2 hours ahead of what we projected.”