Kissimmee Utility Authority personnel are prepared to respond to the severe weather currently threatening Central Florida, according to a utility press statement shortly after 3 p.m.

A tornado watch has been issued for all of Central Florida, including Kissimmee, until 9 p.m. tonight.

The utility has reviewed its emergency procedures and will restore electricity as quickly and safely as possible should the storm strike the Kissimmee area.

KUA has doubled the number of employees staffing its Energy Control Center overnight. In addition, utility line crews have been placed on standby to respond to any power outages.

“We continue to carefully monitor this weather system and are ready to respond should outages occur,” Jim Welsh, KUA’s president and general manager, said. “We will move in as quickly as possible to restore power once the storm has passed and it is safe to have our crews in the field.”

Outages should be reported to the utility’s automated outage-reporting system at 407-933-9898.