What you need to know if you live in Escambia County after Hurricane Sally

Jim Little
Pensacola News Journal

Escambia County officials are responding and working to recover from the devastation of Hurricane Sally

Officials gave the public updates on the current status of recovery efforts during a press conference Thursday morning.

Here's what you need to know from this morning's press conference.

Gulf Power: When will power be back on?

Gulf Power President Marlene Santos said crews have already restored power to 90,000 customers in Northwest Florida, but nearly 200,000 customers are still without power.

"Unfortunately for Escambia and Santa Rosa, most of them (without power) are in that area," Santos said. "As you know, it was the hardest-hit area."

Santos said Gulf Power is working from the east to the west in restoring power in Gulf Power's service area.

In Escambia and Santa Rosa counties, crews are focusing on critical infrastructure as a priority and will move crews into the area in force on Friday.

Santos said most of the power in the eastern areas of the company's service area has been restored.

Power outage:Gulf Power: 92% of Escambia County without power, 53% of Santa Rosa due to Hurricane Sally

"We're going to be focusing today not only on getting that central area of our service area restored, so that also we can just completely focus on the west side," Santos said. "So Santa Rosa and Escambia will be our primary focus tomorrow."

Santos said Gulf Power crews are conducting assessments now, including with drones and helicopters, and will announce later today more specific times for power restorations.

Currently, Escambia County has 133,500 customers without power, and Santa Rosa county has 35,230 customers without power, according to Gulf Power.

ECUA water service

All customers of the Emerald Coast Utilities Authority still remain under a boil-water notice system-wide. Many people who still have water service are experiencing low water pressure because of numerous water main breaks, ECUA Executive Director Bruce Woody said.

Woody said customers may get water service restored and the lose it again as they discover more breaks in the system.

Sewer systems are still operational, but 400 lift stations have lost power. Crews are operating them manually or with generator power.

People can report issues with water to 850-471-6612, Woody said.

Open businesses

Todd Thompson, president and CEO of the Greater Pensacola Chamber of Commerce, said the chamber will be posting lists of open businesses and gas stations on its Facebook page.

He announced the following businesses were open Thursday morning at all locations:

  • Home Depot
  • Lowes
  • Target - only selling dry goods
  • Publix

Access to Pensacola Beach

Both the Bob Sikes Bridge to Pensacola Beach and the Theo Baars Bridge to Perdido Key are open only to residents of those areas.

Only one span of the Bob Sikes Bridge is open with both directions of travel allowed.

Commissioner Robert Bender said the road connecting the southbound span of the Bob Sikes Bridge has been washed out, and state inspectors are evaluating when both spans of the bridge are open.

More information about the condition of the Bob Sikes Bridge will be released at 3 p.m.

Rescue efforts ongoing

Water rescue efforts are still ongoing. Escambia County Public Safety Director Jason Rogers said close to 400 rescues have been conducted. 

Sheriff David Morgan said Innerarity Point was still under between 2 to 4 feet of water, and people are still requesting evacuation.

Yard debris and trash pickup

The city of Pensacola is working to pick up yard debris and residents can bring debris to their curbs.

Escambia County has not made an announcement on how it will handle yard debris. Escambia County Administrator Janice Gilley said the county is conducting an assessment and will have more information on what residents can do with yard debris as soon as Friday.

ECUA is still picking up trash but not recycling. The pick schedule is delayed two days, Woody said.

Jim Little can be reached at jwlittle@pnj.com and 850-208-9827.