7 Things Florida Power Companies Won’t Do After a Storm, No Matter How Long You Wait

3.4 million.

That’s how many Florida customers lost power the day Hurricane Milton crossed the state in October 2024, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Florida power companies restore service fast once a storm clears.

But there are some things they won’t do after a storm, no matter how long you wait.

Note: This is general information, not legal advice. Utility policies, restoration procedures, and permit requirements are subject to change, so confirm the current rules with the Florida Public Service Commission.

1. Your Weatherhead Fix

Florida power companies stop owning the wiring at one exact spot on the house, and FPL and Tampa Electric both draw that line in the identical place.

That spot is the demarcation point, where the utility’s line ends and the homeowner’s equipment begins.

Florida Power & Light (FPL) draws that line at the wire running to the house and the electric meter.

Everything past that point belongs to the homeowner, storm damage included.

Tampa Electric Company (TECO) repairs the identical two things: the service line and the meter.

The weatherhead on the roof, the metal riser running down the wall, and the box holding the meter stay the homeowner’s, whether FPL or Tampa Electric runs the line.

That split is nonnegotiable.

Only a licensed electrician can make that repair, and neither utility sends a crew to do it instead, not even during an active storm response.

2. Skipping Your Inspection

FPL and Tampa Electric both refuse to reconnect a storm-damaged home until the repair clears an inspection, full stop.

FPL spells out the sequence on its own site: Fix the weatherhead or meter box, get the local building department to sign off, then call to request power back.

A crew that finds unrepaired customer equipment doesn’t linger to argue about it.

It moves straight to the next house instead of risking a reconnect that isn’t safe.

That rule holds at FPL and at Tampa Electric alike.

There’s no appeal process.

A crew that could restore your line in five minutes still won’t do it without that sign-off.

3. The Restoration Line

FPL won’t send a truck to one house ahead of a hospital, a water plant, or a police station, no matter who calls first.

FPL’s own restoration order puts critical facilities first, then the lines that get the most customers back the fastest, then everyone else.

Lee County Electric Cooperative (LCEC) confirms the identical order in its own storm guide: Critical facilities, then the repairs that restore power to the most homes fastest, then the rest of the grid.

A single call from a frustrated homeowner doesn’t move that order.

Neither did the last one.

When Hurricane Milton crossed Florida in October 2024, it knocked out power to 3.4 million customers, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

With that many homes dark, the sequence runs on fixed math, not a favor system.

Two neighbors on the same block can even go dark for different lengths of time.

One house might sit on a different circuit than the house next door, and that circuit alone decides who gets power back first.

4. Your Storm Losses

FPL’s own tariff means the company won’t pay for the food that spoiled in your freezer.

FPL’s own claims policy states the company isn’t responsible for food loss, or for property damage caused by hurricanes and other acts of nature.

That’s written into the tariff, not a policy anyone can waive over the phone.

FPL never waives it.

A ruined freezer of meat, a fried air conditioner, or a hotel bill from an extended outage sits with the homeowner or their insurer, not the utility.

FPL will review a claim when its own equipment caused damage outside of a storm.

A hurricane changes that math completely.

5. Your Whole Yard

FPL clears only the part of a fallen tree that’s tangled in its own lines, a limit built into how Florida’s power companies run their tree programs.

FPL’s tree program says it plainly: Crews trim or remove only what threatens their equipment, and the property owner handles the rest.

Tampa Electric’s own tree-trimming policy draws the same line: The company repairs the service wire itself, but keeping it clear of vegetation is the customer’s job.

That part stays yours.

A trunk across the driveway, a limb on the roof, or a hedge blocking the sidewalk isn’t the utility’s job.

Local trash pickup or a private tree service handles whatever the crew leaves behind.

Many Florida counties run special storm-debris pickups after a major hurricane, which is worth checking before hiring anyone.

6. Your Backfed Generator

FPL trains its crews to treat a backfeeding generator as a live hazard, and a crew that suspects one won’t keep working that stretch of line until it’s resolved.

A generator wired straight into a breaker panel without a transfer switch does exactly that, sending electricity out through the meter and onto the grid.

FPL’s own guidance warns that backfeeding can injure or kill a crew member working to restore power down the block.

A transfer switch is the fix, and only a licensed electrician should install one.

Nothing else works.

That’s the one repair on this list that can kill somebody a mile away.

Until that switch is confirmed in place, FPL’s crews won’t work anywhere near that hookup.

7. Free Line Burial

FPL won’t bury one customer’s line just because a storm knocked it down.

FPL runs a formal underground program, but whole neighborhoods qualify through commission-approved criteria like storm-outage history, not a single homeowner’s request.

A resident who wants their own line buried outside that program can still request it, but the municipality or the community pays for that conversion, not FPL.

That’s a different bill entirely.

An overhead line stays the default for many Florida homes through one more storm season and probably several after it.

The PSC’s Boundaries

The Florida Public Service Commission (PSC) writes many of the rules Florida power companies follow after a storm, from storm-hardening spending to how a utility reports outages.

Florida’s hurricane season runs through November 30, and the National Hurricane Center marks September 10 as its historic peak.

Every Florida utility files a storm plan with the commission ahead of that stretch, spelling out which power lines it buries, trims, or hardens first.

Those storm-protection charges show up as a small line on every customer’s monthly bill, whether or not their own street sees storm damage that year.

The bill reflects it.

The rules don’t change because one street got hit hard and another one didn’t.