Sebring Raceway Transitions to Staging for Critically Needed Power Services Throughout Highlands County
More than 1,000 personnel are restoring power to businesses and residents while living in “Pop-Up Base Camp” at the famed raceway
SEBRING, Fla. (Oct. 11, 2024) – The unwelcome arrival of Hurricane Milton late Wednesday night and early Thursday morning in Sebring brought with it widespread damage and an almost complete loss of power in Highlands County, home of Sebring International Raceway.
While the raceway did sustain limited damage, its vast size and open layout again have been made available to power companies and crews arriving from throughout the United States to assist in restoring power to more than 63,000 homes and businesses in the county and beyond. Approximately 1,000 Duke Energy and Glades Electric personnel are staging and being housed on the large concrete runways the raceway is known for. Bucket trucks and other repair vehicles are being dispatched from the raceway to areas of need, and hundreds of other vehicles, tents and portable facilities are providing critical infrastructure to crews.
Duke Energy’s Lori Herring said approximately 350 bucket trucks serving Duke customers are working from the facility, and large numbers of Glades Electric vehicles also are on property. Herring also said approximately 750 Duke crew members are working from the raceway, one of 13 turnkey pop-up base camps in Florida. Duke alone has approximately 8,000 linemen and other personnel working throughout the state to restore power.
With so many workers, most of whom are not from Florida, temporary base camps are required to serve housing needs, and Sebring International Raceway is a perfect place for such operations.
“Space. That’s what makes this such an ideal place for us to work from,” Herring said. “Given how vast the facility is, the large areas of concrete and the permanent bathrooms are great. We have room to expand our operation if necessary, and we can ramp up or down in a space like this.”
Tim Howard, also with Duke, estimates the operations will remain at Sebring International Raceway for one week.
While the personnel working transmission and distribution lines throughout Florida are widely considered heroes in hard-hit areas following natural disasters, there are other groups and equally impressive and necessary teams and equipment allowing power companies to operate.
Lodging Solutions from Houston, Texas and Storm Services from Thomasville, Ga. are two companies on site specializing in turnkey operations for temporary facilities primarily focused on disaster relief. At Sebring, the two companies are providing necessary infrastructure for the power companies to focus on their primary function of restoring power. They provide lodging trailers that sleep 24 individuals each, bathroom facilities, laundry services, food and supplies, showers, generators, fuel tankers, refrigerated trucks and virtually any other needed equipment.
“This is what we do, serve the companies that need us to be able to help the community,” said Chris Bolton, of Bolton Holdings which owns Lodging Solutions. “We started a few weeks ago in Perry (Fla.), moved to South Carolina, then North Carolina and now we’re back in Florida. The ample parking and the hard top (referring to Sebring’s concrete roadways) and the ability to get in and out quickly for line trucks is what makes Sebring such a good location for us.”
“Having a hotel on site (Seven Sebring Raceway Hotel) is an added and very nice benefit,” said Duke’s Herring. “We’re already working with the staff there to secure as many rooms as possible while we’re here.”
Similar operations have been managed out of the raceway previously, most recently following Hurricanes Ian (2022) and Irma (2017).
Damage sustained at the nearly 75-year-old raceway did not prevent these teams from operating and serving the public. Virtually all billboards surrounding the 3.74-mile track were damaged, with several destroyed, most notably the large billboard at the corner of Haywood-Taylor and Kenilworth Boulevards near the front of the track. Some water damage in suites also occurred, but none of the issues are considered significant and all should be repaired before the next spectator events including the World Racing League Nov. 8-10.
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