How CEO managed JEA's storm response while out of town

City-owned utility took lots of heat for missing goal for restoration

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The I-TEAM spent Friday going through the dozens of text messages and looking over phone logs of JEA CEO Paul McElroy to see how he managed the utility's response to Hurricane Matthew during the four days he was out of town to attend his daughter's wedding.

McElroy came under fire for leaving Jacksonville the day before the hurricane hit and not returning until the following Monday. During that time, more than 445,000 JEA customers lost power.

McElroy and JEA board members have said they were in constant contact during the storm, and the review of the communications showed that by the time the Category 2 storm was approaching the First Coast, managers were worried about having enough resources to restore power. The texts also show it was it was Mayor Lenny Curry who raised the issue of bringing in additional utility crews to help.

Records show McElroy sent or received 91 text message to staff and made 53 phone calls, spending more than 9½ hours on the phone before and after the storm.

As Matthew approached Florida on Thursday, McElroy had an hour-long conference call with the JEA's emergency operations center at 5:55 a.m., just before he left Jacksonville. Four hours later, he got a text from his second in command, Ted Hobson, asking if they should call in more outside help.

Later that day, McElroy had another conference call with JEA staff, then he texted to ask if there was enough fuel for vehicles for the JEA fleet. Later that day, McElroy got a text from a board member saying, "I am getting asked about us cutting water and sewer tonight. What are we doing?"

McElroy replied:

In the evacuation area the beach tomorrow, when our guys evacuate they will shut down the systems. We have arranged to stay as long as possible and they will have police escorts off the island."

On Friday, when Matthew passed just 40 miles off the coast of Jacksonville, there is not much texting from McElroy to his staff. We do know he was on the phone for EOC briefings at 6 a.m. and 6 p.m.

That night, Hobson texted McElroy about concerns that the JEA might not have enough inventory to restore transmission with this level of damage. McElroy called Mayor Lenny Curry at 11:12 p.m., and they spoke for seven minutes.

Saturday, the day after the storm passed, the JEA kicked into high gear. McElroy had a 30-minute conference call with JEA, then texted Hopkins again about his talk with Curry:

I spoke with the mayor last night. He requested we reach out for additional resources before they are released back to their home utility. He says this is an operation and PR challenge."

Hobson also texted McElroy saying they are going to ask the governor for 50 generators. Shortly after, McElroy responded that he was thinking more about electric crews. A few minutes later  McElroy texted: "Good plan. Need to ask for more electric crews, even (though) it take time to integrate  them into productive workflow."

Hobson then asked his boss, "When can we expect /say we will have full restoration?"

At 7:52 p.m. Saturday, the chief financial officer for JEA  texted McElroy, “Did you any chance tell the mayor we would have power restored in  72 hours?"

He responded:

Said, too early to commit publicly, stretch goal was to have schools in by Monday morning, bulk of restoration will be 72 hours but we still have many out beyond that. We have doubled our line crews, asking for 10 more, will continually assess asking for more, requesting 100 generators and finally the team is working on the language to support this and will be prepared to report at 830."

McElroy ended the day with another, 25-minute conference call.

On Sunday McElroy, spoke four times with different staff members.

With pressure mounting on restoration, McElroy placed a call to Gov Rick Scott, then texted Hobson:

From our call I took we staying with full restoration of power ready customers by 11:59 Monday night.  While I remain optimistic, what is our message contingency plan in the event we miss the target."

And as thousands of customers know, JEA did miss that target. State records show that there were still 49,683 customers without power at 11:31 p.m. Monday.

The utility's board has apologized for being over-optimistic and announced it planned to make changes in communications effort so that a similar mistake does not happen again.


About the Author:

Jim Piggott is the reporter to count on when it comes to city government and how it will affect the community.