Over 1 million Florida residents left without power following Hurricane Helene

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis promised linemen would be in the field restoring power “probably as soon as there’s light out.”

click to enlarge Reported Duke Energy power outages on morning of Sept. 27. - Screengrab from Duke Energy website
Screengrab from Duke Energy website
Reported Duke Energy power outages on morning of Sept. 27.
Over a million Florida residents experienced power outages last night, as Category 4 Helene made landfall in the Big Bend region.

Helene reached Florida's coast at 11:10 p.m south of Perry, Florida, leaving many in the dark across the entire state. As of 8 a.m. Friday morning, nearly 1,163,357 Florida residents are without power.

Outage maps across Tampa Bay show that Pinellas County has the most residents without power at the moment. Duke Energy customers in Pinellas County make up the largest population of reported outages, with 230,409.

There's also 57,413 TECO customers reporting power loss in Hillsborough County, and over 70,000 Florida Power and Light customers are reporting outages across both Manatee and Sarasota counties.

Speaking to reporters last night, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis promised linemen would be in the field restoring power “probably as soon as there’s light out.” I think they’re going to get a lot done,” DeSantis added. “The priority is to get power restored as quickly as possible."
Subscribe to Creative Loafing newsletters.

Follow us: Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter