East Mississippi Electric Power Association is preparing to send 18 employees to aid in power restoration efforts following Hurricane Idalia. The employees, which include linemen, right-of-way crew members and engineers will be sent to Central Florida Electric Cooperative Inc., headquartered in Chiefland, Florida.

Central Florida Electric’s service territory experienced significant damage from Hurricane Idalia, which made landfall in Florida on Wednesday morning as a category 3 storm. On Wednesday afternoon, Central Florida Electric was reporting more than 18,000 members without power.

EMEPA crews from Meridian are scheduled to depart from EMEPA’s Meridian office at 7 a.m. on Thursday. Quitman crews are scheduled to depart from Quitman and will meet Meridian crews en route to Florida.

Mississippi Power is also lending aid to the storm-damaged area with more than 250 personnel sent to Georgia ahead of Hurricane Idalia making landfall. The storm team will be on hand to help Georgia Power crews restore power to the storm affected areas.

Northern Division Storm Team Leader David Huckaby, a native of Meridian, said the line crews and support personnel on the storm team came from throughout Mississippi Power’s 23-county service area and were all too familiar with the devastation power storms can bring to a community.

“We know what it’s like to be impacted by storms, but we want our customers to know we’re going to be there to support them following the storm,” he said.