Fifty PPL Electric Utilities engineers, supervisors and line workers formed a convoy of 20 special-purpose trucks and other vehicles and headed out Aug. 30 for Florida to help local power companies deal with Hurricane Dorian.

However, before the convoy reached Florida, the storm track of Dorian changed and Florida was no longer threatened with a direct hit. The major power company in Florida, Duke Energy, released the PPL workers from their task. The workers were then ordered to return to their home base in Pennsylvania.

The task force included 36 line workers; the workers expected to arrive Aug. 31, but have now returned home.

The group was responding as part of a mutual assistance agreement between regional power companies to assist each other in the event of disaster according to PPL’s Strategic Communications Manager Joe Nixon.

The crews were sent to help Florida power companies Florida Power and Light and Duke Energy Florida deal with the aftermath of the hurricane.

“We are happy to be able to provide this mutual assistance,” said Nixon as the men and vehicles assembled on PPL’s Hausman Road campus.

The group formed up at the PPL compound on Hausman Road in South Whitehall Township and were slated to meet up with another group of PPL workers and vehicles heading south out of Lancaster.

According to Nixon, the men expected to stay one or two weeks. If the commitment had grown beyond that, new crews were would have designated to replace the crews on the ground.

“We are going down to help the families in Florida to restore power loss [expected] from Hurricane Dorian,” said Brian Kostik last week as the convoy formed up. Kostik is a PPL safety professional who was joining the convoy.

The PPL crew did not need to help any other states as the storm moved up the coast, said Nixon. He said he was not aware of any requests for assistance from Bermuda.

The expense of the operation will be met by the host or receiving power companies, not by local PPL customers according to Nixon.

PPL sent a similar task force to Puerto Rico last year in the wake of Hurricane Maria. In 2017 the local power company also sent assistance to Florida in the wake of Hurricane Irma.