Staff Reports
About 500,000 municipal utility customers remain without power following the three days that Hurricane Irma battered the state, according to the Florida Municipal Electric Association (FMEA).
The hardest-hit areas for municipal electric utilities include the Florida Keys, Homestead, Moore Haven, Clewiston, Wauchula, Lakeland, Bartow, Fort Meade, Orlando, Ocala and the Jacksonville area.
Currently, 37 percent of municipal electric utility customers are without power, which is down from 61 percent yesterday.
Power has already been restored to an approximate 300,000 municipal electric utility customers. The city of Tallahassee and Kissimmee Utility Authority are close to 100 percent restoration, and their available resources will be reassigned to other utilities once they are complete.
Crews are already in Florida or on their way from Texas, Nebraska, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Oklahoma, Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Louisiana, Alabama, North Carolina, Virginia and across New England.
“Cooperation and assistance from others is critical during times like these. We greatly appreciation the help of personnel from public power and investor-owned utilities who left their homes and families to rush to our aid even before Hurricane Irma made landfall in Florida,” said Amy Zubaly, the FMEA’s executive director.
