Nearly 2.5 million customers in Florida are still without power a day after Hurricane Milton hit the Sunshine State, according to PowerOutage.us, a platform that monitors power outages.
Hurricane Milton made landfall near Siesta Key, about 70 miles south of Tampa on Florida’s Gulf Coast, as a Category 3 storm Wednesday evening. The storm unleashed numerous tornadoes, wind speeds exceeding 100 miles per hour and more than 16 inches of rain in some areas.
As of Friday morning, at least 16 deaths had been confirmed, with rescue operations still underway.
Pinellas County was hit the hardest percentage-wise, with 81% of its tracked customers, or a total of 460,544, still without power. In neighboring Hillsborough County, home to 1.5 million residents, nearly 500,000 outages were reported Friday morning.
Highlands County was also hit hard, with 72% of tracked customers reporting outages. Hardee County was also devastated, with 67 percent of its residents without power.
Polk County, adjacent to Hillsborough, experienced 137,496 outages, while Lee County was also severely impacted, recording nearly 200,000 outages.
In total, about 30 counties continue to experience widespread power outages.
At 5:56 a.m. Friday, Florida Power and Light, which serves more than 12 million people across the state, provided an update on X, formerly Twitter. He assured customers that “restoration efforts continued overnight to restore your power.”
FPL spokesperson Jack Eble said: “Our crews worked safely and as quickly as possible despite a number of challenges, including flooding, debris and other hazards that Milton left behind . »
He continued: “Safety is our top priority right now, and we want you to share that commitment. Keep safety top of mind, and we appreciate your patience and understanding as our teams continue to navigate these challenges , and we won’t stop until every person gets their power back.”
Mike Stewart/AP
Residents are advised to avoid flooded areas and downed power lines. “If you see a downed power line, consider it live and call 911 or FPL at 1-800-4-OUTAGE,” Eble said in an earlier update on X.
Outages can also be reported online at www.FPL.com/outage.
Despite its ongoing restoration efforts, FPL warned that many customers should prepare for prolonged outages. As of 4:17 p.m. Thursday, power had been restored to 730,000 customers, aided by an emergency workforce of 17,000 people from 41 states, the company said.
“Early evaluations show that our investments in reinforcement and smart grid technology made a big difference, enabling our teams to restore more than 730,000 customers within hours of the state’s storm exit,” said Armando Pimentel, president and CEO of FPL.
The devastation comes on the heels of Hurricane Helene, which hit two weeks earlier and left millions of Americans without power for days.
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