JEA ready to respond to Hurricane Debby in preparation for possible heavy rain, winds

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — JEA has activated its Emergency Operations Center in preparation for Tropical Storm Debby, which is expected to strengthen into a hurricane and bring heavy rain and strong winds to the Jacksonville area.

JEA leadership has been closely monitoring Tropical Storm Debby throughout the weekend. As of 8:00 a.m. this morning, JEA Interim CEO and Managing Director Vickie Cavey has ordered the JEA Emergency Operations Center (EOC) to operate at partial activation. This level of activation involves round-the-clock storm monitoring, support operations, and scheduled communications to internal teams, field crews, and customers with storm updates.

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Tropical Storm Debby is expected to take a northward turn this morning, with a forecasted landfall early tomorrow afternoon over the Big Bend area. The storm is anticipated to strengthen into a hurricane tonight, bringing heavy rainfall, strong wind gusts, and frequent lightning. The heaviest rainfall is expected to begin Sunday evening and continue through Monday.

“All areas of JEA are prepared for Tropical Storm Debby, and we want our customers to be safe throughout the storm as well,” said Cavey. “We are ready to mobilize and restore power and water and respond to any related emergencies once the storm passes.”

As part of normal storm preparations, starting Monday, JEA will temporarily suspend customer disconnections for non-payment to support the community during the storm.

JEA encourages all residential and commercial customers to prepare now for possible storm-related impacts, including outages. Customers can visit jea.com/storm to learn how to prepare for dangerous storms and find other important resources.

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Restoration and Safety

Once the storm passes and weather reports indicate it is safe, JEA will immediately enter the restoration phase of emergency operations. Customers are asked for patience as crews assess the outages caused by the storm and work to restore services as quickly and safely as possible.

There are three simple ways to report an outage:

• Visit jea.com/outage to view the Electric Outage Map and report an outage.
• Call (904) 665-6000 to use the automated system.
• Text OUT to 69532 (MyJEA).

JEA will keep customers informed with important notifications via email and social media. Community members can also find preparation tips and other essential resources at jea.com/storm.

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