Page 25 - Utility Crews News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Our challenge here was of a different nature, largely wind and rain, and my community we got about 50% tree cover, which means when the rain comes and that ground gets saturated, the wind knocks those trees over, we got thousands of trees down in my community, over 100,000 of our residents without power. we are experiencing a lot of work today to remove debris and trees from covered and impassable roads and we got our utility crews on the line trying to get power back restored. but the truth is that we're counting our blessings here in tallahassee. we know that it could have been much worse fo...

Out. meantime, there are nearly half a million people without power across florida, alabama and georgia. tens of thousands of utility crews are working on restoring electricity, but officials say it could take many days. again, problems like this with massive trees down blocking interstates and major roads and arteries into these isolated areas. first responders still having trouble getting to those stranded and maybe those who still need rescuing. we also got word that gulf coast regional medical center in panama city, florida, along the coast, has had to evacuate 130 patients because of thei...

Was so powerful and so terrifying when it came ashore. those who stayed here on this island community are able to walk about and inspect the damage at their own risk it, but as far as emergency officials, the official word is it is too dangerous for evacuees to return at this point. if you have a laugh to this area, stay off the road until utility crews and other crews it cannot clear the debris. it even driving here from our hotel, the same city for us, just a couple of miles away, it was treacherous. we had to navigate around some fallen trees and some downed utility poles. so i would not re...

Trees down across panama city alone. that means a lot of power lines down as well. there are utility crews out, as mike said. this is what you're looking at. go back to the street. hundreds of roads are blocked by these downed trees. hundreds in bay county alone. there are power lines. four lane roads are down to one lane. utility crews and police need to get out and about to do rescues and to clear and repair roads. we just had a bunch of police clear roads. this is how they respond to calls as best they can. there are a lot of calls they can't get to. people calling on their friends. they ca...

Where you are in panama city beach? are people coming back or are they heeding the advice of everyone, all of the authorities, don't return to your homes, at least not yet? >> reporter: well, most people are heeding that advice. we had one person actually try to leave their neighborhood after all the debris came in, after the trees came in, and their car got stuck in a water area which was not something they could see. they drove right into it, and that vehicle was left unusable. so we don't want you to try to leave your home. we want you to stay and wait for first responders, wait for utility...