About 5% still without power in Manatee County after Hurricane Milton’s wrath
Power is gradually being restored in Manatee County as recovery efforts continue following Hurricane Milton’s devastating blow through Florida’s Gulf Coast.
As of 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, about 5.3% or 13,709 customers remained without power in Manatee County, according to Find Energy. That’s a decrease from Monday morning’s 12% and a significant decrease when 80 percent of the county was without power on Thursday, the day after Milton slammed into Siesta Key off Sarasota.
Of those without power, more than 13,000 customers are served by Florida Power and Light, and the remainder are with Peace River Electric.
In Sarasota County, about 4.7%, or 14,210 customers, lack electrical power.
In its recovery timeline, FPL projected that power would be restored to 95% of both counties by Tuesday night, a goal that has been met. However, the company has yet to specify when the remaining 5%, still affecting thousands of customers, will be restored.
“Customers in heavily damaged areas of Manatee and Sarasota counties will begin to receive personalized estimated times of restoration based on the unique circumstances surrounding their power outages,” said FPL spokesman Chris McGrath in an email to the Herald.
McGrath added that there are some homes FPL cannot safely repair until customers hire a licensed electrician to “repair customer-owned electric equipment and pass local inspection.”
FPL’s Care To Share customer assistance program is offering customers up to $2,000 for eligible repairs.
Statewide, 217,839 customers were without power as of 2:30 p.m. Tuesday, down from 3.4 million after the storm.
The counties that have the most customers without power are Pinellas, which had 105,095 customers lacking electricity as of Tuesday morning, and Hillsborough, with 88,195 customers without power, a significant decrease from Monday morning’s 163,218.
Miami Herald staff writer Ana Claudia Chacin contributed.
This story was originally published October 15, 2024 at 8:05 AM.