Jacob Ogles
Nearly 21,000 Floridians are still without power six days after Hurricane Helene impacted the state. At this point, outages persist almost entirely in the Big Bend region where the storm made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane.
In Madison County, 35.52% percent of customers await power restoration, according to the Florida Public Service Commission’s 6 a.m. update. That represents about 4,100 people still living without electricity.
All of those still in the dark in Madison County are Tri-County Electric Cooperative customers, and that network of users remains the most severely impacted by the storm as of early Wednesday. An additional 4,300 Tri-County customers are still reporting outages in Taylor County, where the hurricane made landfall last Thursday evening. That’s about 30.74% of customers in the county.
Additionally, some 750 Tri-County Electric customers in Jefferson County, 144 customers in Dixie County and 46 in Lafayette County still have no power.
“As of Tuesday evening, we have restored power to 9,217 meters across our service territory,” reads a statement from Tri-County Electric. “All meters that can safely receive electricity off of the St. Augustine and Lloyd Substations have been restored. Restoration for both substations was completed earlier than their estimated Wednesday and Thursday restoration times.”
The utility still is not providing a hard timeline on restoration for most customers.
All Duke Energy, Florida Power & Light Company and Tampa Electric customers have had power completely restored. As recently as Tuesday, Duke had more outages reported than any other power provider. But that was in more densely populated areas like Pinellas County, which had the highest reported number of outages all week but now has lights back on in every part of the county.
Duke Energy officials said they still have lineman in other hard-hit areas helping restore service.
“All of our customers — every single one — matter to us, regardless of where they’re at in the state,” said Melissa Seixas, Duke Energy Florida state President. “We thank our customers for their continued patience and remind them that we will not stop until we get the lights back on for everyone who is capable of receiving power.”
Clay Electric Cooperative still has thousands without power. That includes nearly 3,200 awaiting service in Columbia County, about 8.79% of total customers there.
Central Florida Electric Cooperative has a significant number of customers in four counties still impacted. The bulk of those are in Dixie County, where 2,200 still have no electricity. Combined with Tri-County customers there, 22.15% of county residents still have blackout conditions.
There are also 1,500 Levy County customers on Central Florida Electric who still need service, or 5.49% of county residents. The provider also has 1,000 without power in Gilchrist County, 9.71% of customers in the county, as well as 76 users in Alachua County.
Another 488 customers in Alachua County on Gainesville Regional Utilities still have no power. But at this point, only 0.48% of GRU customers in the county need power.
