PALM CITY, Fla. — Power is moving underground in neighborhoods across Martin County as Florida Power & Light works to strengthen the grid for storm season.
The Storm Secure Underground program shifts overhead power lines below ground, a move FPL said can reduce outages caused by hurricanes, falling trees and severe weather. Crews are currently working in several communities, including Palm City.
WATCH BELOW: 'It’s great. I applaud them for it,' resident Craig Bowsman tells WPTV's Cassandra Garcia
FPL said data helps determine where undergrounding is most needed, particularly in areas that have experienced repeated storm-related outages.
“Some of that data that we look at are outages related to hurricanes and outages related to trees,” said Kamrel Eppinger, an FPL spokesperson.
For residents like Craig Bowsman, those outages are memorable.
“Francis and Jean from the corner down, we had 11 pine trees across the road,” Bowsman said. “We were out for 23 days.”
The undergrounding process involves drilling beneath neighborhoods to create a path for power lines. While undergrounding can be more challenging in flood-prone areas, FPL said it's the future for many of our communities.
“During the 2024 hurricane season, we’ve seen that these lines perform up to 14 times better than their overhead counterparts," Eppinger said. "Day to day, they perform up to 50% better.”
So far, FPL reports 25 projects in Martin County have impacted about 700 customers. By next hurricane season, another 302 customers are expected to receive underground service.
Bowsman said the changes bring peace of mind.
“There’s so many things that mother nature can do to us. I’ve lost three transformers here to lightning that probably wouldn’t have happened if it all would have been underground,” he said. “It’s great. I applaud them for it.”
Similar projects are underway in neighboring counties. FPL said more than 6,000 customers have been shifted underground in both St. Lucie and Indian River counties, while Palm Beach County has surpassed 22,000 customers.
Portions of this story were assisted by artificial intelligence tools and reviewed by a WPTV journalists to ensure accuracy, clarity, and adherence to editorial standards.
