Orlando Sentinel
(TNS)
More than 200,000 Central Florida utility customers are still in the dark Friday morning, a day after Hurricane Milton ripped through the state, downing power lines and dumping rain on the region.
Utilities are reporting power outages across the region, from Leesburg to Winter Garden to St. Cloud. In Lake County, a third of customers are still in the dark, according to poweroutage.us, which colleges data from utilities nationwide. But some are trimming the number of outages significantly, and promising to inform customers still in the dark when their power will be back.
The 200,000 figure includes customers in Orange, Osceola, Seminole and Lake Counties.
“From downed trees and branches falling on our power lines to storm surge flooding our equipment – which causes almost immediate corrosion – our infrastructure was severely damaged by Hurricane Milton. We’re making repairs where we can, but we anticipate we will need to rebuild in many areas,” said Todd Fountain, Duke Energy Florida storm director, in a press release, adding that crews are working through the night to restore power.
Duke, which serves customers throughout the state, reported more than 1 million customers statewide without power after the storm. The utility has restored power to nearly 350,000 customers, but more than 850,000 remain without it, according to the press release. The lights are still off for more than 158,000 Duke Energy customers in Orange, Seminole, Lake and Osceola counities, according to poweroutage.us. The company’s press release said customers still without power will receive estimated times of restoration this afternoon.
The utility said it had staged base camps for work crews in areas hardest hit by the storm, including Winter Garden and The Villages.
More than 30,000 Orlando Utilities Commission customers also were without power on Friday morning, according to poweroutage.us, down from a peak of 88,000 immediately after the storm. The utility serves more than 400,000 customers in Orange and Osceola counties,
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