About 900 Alabama Power employees and contractors left Bradenton, Florida, Wednesday morning and headed south to the hard-hit areas of Fort Myers, Bonita Springs and Naples, between 90 and 130 miles from where they had worked since Monday.

Alabama Power Delivery Contract Services Manager Corey Sweeney said the crews are continuing to restore power to Florida Power & Light customers along the Gulf coastline that was struck by Hurricane Irma’s wind gusts of 142 mph on Sept. 8.

Alabama Power crews work in Florida to restore power outages. (Photo courtesy of Melissa Matisko)

Alabama Power crews huddle before work to restore outages in Florida to restore power (Photo courtesy of Melissa Matisko)

Alabama Power crews help restore remaining power outages in Florida. ( (Photo courtesy of Melissa Matisko)

Alabama Power crews stand next to sign of appreciation from children at Palmetto Charter School. . (contributed)

Signs are all over of huge thanks for Alabama Power crews in Florida. Students stand next to this sign from Palmetto Charter School. (contributed)

Letters of appreciation for Alabama Power crew members (contributed)

Letters of appreciation for Alabama Power crew members (contributed)

Letters of appreciation for Alabama Power crew members (contributed)

Letters of appreciation for Alabama Power crew members (contributed)

Letters of appreciation for Alabama Power crew members. This sign is from Palmetto Charter School. (contributed)

Letters and cards of appreciation for Alabama Power crew members (contributed)

(Melissa Matisko)

A look at Alabama Power trucks from high above. (Photo courtesy of Melissa Matisko)

Trucks of crew members on duty in Floirda. (Photo courtesy of Melissa Matisko)

Hundreds of grateful FP&L customers posted Facebook messages and tweeted their appreciation this week, such as John Tortorella, who wrote “These guys … displaced from their family and home to come down and put lines back together … I walked out with a $100 and said thank you so much for sacrificing your time to come help us in Florida. Please have a good meal and some beers on me. To which he replied: ‘There’s no way I could take anyone’s money when they are in a bad way because of a disaster. I’m just doing my part to help folks out.’”

Alabama Power crews restored outages in Alabama, Georgia and Florida after Hurricane Irma did massive damage to infrastructure in all three states.

Children from Palmetto Charter School, across from an Alabama Power staging area, hung a sign to show their appreciation for Alabama and FP&L. They also wrote cards thanking crews for restoring power.

FP&L has more than 27,000 workers assisting with restoring power across Florida. The outages had been reduced from about 4.5 million to some 40,000 on Wednesday.