More than 80 percent without power in Manatee County as Hurricane Milton recovery begins
Hours after Hurricane Milton zipped through Florida, almost 80% of Manatee County residents are without power.
The Category 3 storm, which made landfall at Siesta Key just before 8:30 p.m. Wednesday with 120 mph winds, brought life-threatening storm surge, pounding winds and power outages to counties across the state. Statewide, more than three million people were without power.
READ MORE: Milton leaves coast-to-coast path of damage in Florida. Three million without power
As of 7 a.m. Thursday, more than 200,000 residents and businesses in Manatee County were affected by the outage, according to Find Energy. Neighboring counties, like Hardee and Sarasota, are also seeing mass outages that will continue as the area begins recovering from the storm.
READ MORE: What you can do if Hurricane Milton cuts power, internet on Gulf Coast and South Florida
More than half of the outages are in residences serviced by Florida Power and Light. FPL has around 17,000 workers from over 40 states stationed to assist with restoration.
READ MORE: Which Florida counties are without power after Hurricane Milton hit? Take a look
Some workers have already began working on restoring power.
READ MORE: How long will it take to restore your power if it goes out in Hurricane Milton? ‘Longer’
This report will be updated as more information becomes available
This story was originally published October 9, 2024 at 8:36 PM.
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