A “pop-up barbershop” for hardworking lineworkers, coordinated by Tiffany Bornfleth and team
When a big storm rolls in, most of us hunker down – charging phones, gathering candles and hoping the power stays on. But for Tampa Electric employees, the storm is when their “storm role” work kicks in. While the wind howls and the rain pours, these behind-the-scenes workers jump into action, each with a critical role to play in keeping our communities safe and connected.
Our storm response is a well-honed, coordinated effort that relies on teamwork and, often, endurance. Major hurricanes can mean significant preparation and long days of recovery. 2024’s Hurricane Milton was our biggest mobilization in our history – with 6,000 crews brought in from across the U.S. and Canada and eight base camps to feed and house them, supply repair equipment and much more.
We’re spotlighting a few of our team members and their roles when extreme weather hits – because getting the lights back on is anything but a one-person job.
Tiffany Bornfleth – Service with a Smile
In her “non-storm” role, Tiffany Bornfleth helps coordinate planned power outages, ensuring customers are notified and all details are attended to.
In her storm role, she’s assigned to lead a base camp, most recently at the Wimauma Church of God. Her mission, along with others in the South Hillsborough incident team, is to help ensure visiting crews, who’ve come to help with storm restoration, are well cared for. After Hurricane Milton, her team did everything from laundry to serving dinner to working with Great Clips to provide haircuts.
Tiffany prepares to serve visiting crews a hot meal for dinner
Stacy Hallman – Navigating the Storm after the Storm
By day, Stacy Hallman is a manager of load research and forecasting, helping forecast and research our energy supply and demand.
During and after severe storms, Stacy is a base camp logistics leader, most recently at the Florida Strawberry Festival grounds in Plant City. She worked the evening shift, acting as a liaison between the base camp vendors and the visiting line crews and tree trim crews. Flexibility and a sense of urgency are key.
“There’s a lot going on,” she says, “and handling change and the unexpected is the norm.”
Stacy, standing, helps check in visiting crews as they arrive, ensuring all have a place to sleep, linens, etc.
Gerald White – Teamwork in Action
Gerald White works as a superintendent in our energy supply department. He’s understandably proud of the hard work, dedication and teamwork displayed by everyone involved in hurricane restoration efforts.
In the aftermath of Hurricane Milton, Gerald helped facilitate and manage the operations for more than 600 line workers assigned to central Tampa. That involved serving breakfast, lunch and dinner daily to hungry crews from across the country. He also worked with our "human performance" team to ensure team members in the field were well-trained and working safely.
“There were many moving parts, a great deal of coordination, and a shared commitment to safety and efficiency,” Gerald says. “In the end, we got the job done 100 percent.”
Gerald, far right, helped serve three meals a day to 600 lineworkers after Hurricane Milton
 Jennifer McGarrah – Starting from Scratch
Jennifer McGarrah’s “blue skies” role involves creating training materials and documenting procurement processes.
Her “dark skies” storm role is helping ensure all base camps have the people and miscellaneous things needed to keep things running smoothly. For Hurricane Milton, that meant helping set up a base at Tampa’s Raymond James Stadium, a new location we hadn’t previously used. And she began her assignment in the dark, with no power, to help get the inaugural location up-and-running.
Jennifer working from home, with no power, to set up resources for the Raymond James incident base
We’re proud of our community and our team members as damage is assessed, power is restored and systems are strengthened for the next challenge.
Behind every storm response is a network of Tampa Electric team members working hard – many of them “behind the scenes” but very much in the action.
