LAKE WORTH BEACH, Fla. — Local communities are getting out in front of possible weather problems. For many, it means a bit of cleaning before the rain arrives.
Curtis Daniels is fixing his sprinkler system. The Lake Worth Beach resident said he's concerned about just what's headed our way.
Flooding is often a concern for Daniels who is happy to hear about the work that's already done.
"Slowly they've been clearing them all away, tree branches, palm tree leaves, and stuff like that. Covering it up so that water can't flow and that's what backs it all up," he said.
The tropics could soon bring drenching rain and flooding to South Florida.
That also has the City of Boca Raton preparing. Work crews started cleaning storm drains early Thursday morning. They're focused on removing debris piles, which are a major cause of storm drains clogging.
Florida Power and Light are pre-positioning crews and equipment as they also track the areas likely to be hardest hit.
"And, as vegetation is a leading cause of outages during severe weather, our crews are also maintaining and trimming vegetation near our energy grid near our infrastructure so that our crews are able to work around the clock," FPL spokesperson Marshall Hastings said.
He said throughout the state of Florida, FPL has roughly 12 million customers. He said they have a methodical way of restoring power if it goes out.
"We start with identifying and inspecting our FPL infrastructure and our power generating facilities to ensure we can get energy to the grid," he said.
Hastings said it's important to move quickly.
"At that point, we go and get back online critical facilities like hospitals, 911 call centers, and police stations, those critical needs for the community. While we're doing that, we're getting thousands of customers in a major storm back online as well," he said. "As far as storm drains both Boca and Lake Worth Beach will be back out early Friday morning to continue cleaning and clearing ahead of the rain."