DETROIT – DTE Energy is sending 300 lineman plus 100 tree trimmers to Florida to help with the Hurricane Irma relief efforts.
The team will leave with bucket trucks from the Redford Township Service Center and other centers around Metro Detroit Thursday morning.
The crew expects to arrive in north Florida by Friday afternoon where they will be on standby until they are needed.
Meanwhile, Consumers Energy is sending more than 200 employees and contract personnel from Michigan to Florida.
"We are ready and willing to assist our colleagues in Florida as they prepare for this historic hurricane,” said Guy Packard, Consumers Energy vice president of electric energy operations. “In the past, we were fortunate to be supported by out-of-state crews following major storms, and with fair weather here in Michigan, this is an opportunity for us to return the favor to our fellow line workers."
Irma hits Puerto Rico first
Hurricane Irma is hitting Puerto Rico with heavy rain and powerful winds, and authorities say more than 900,000 people are without power.
Puerto Rico's emergency management agency says more than half the island was without power and nearly 50,000 without water in the U.S. territory.
Authorities in the Caribbean are struggling to get aid to small islands already pounded by the historic storm earlier Wednesday.
Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne said Wednesday nearly every building on Barbuda was damaged when Irma passed overhead and about 60 percent of the island's roughly 1,400 people are homeless.
He says a 2-year-old child was killed as a family tried to escape a damaged home during the storm.
Hurricane Irma is expected to hit Florida sometime Saturday.
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