Over 1.2m Floridians without power after Hurricane Helene makes landfall
Image courtesy FPL
As of this morning, approximately 1.28 million customers in Florida are without power after Hurricane Helene made landfall Thursday night.
Hurricane Helene made landfall in northwestern Florida on Thursday evening as a Category 4 hurricane, bringing with it power outages to up to 1.28 million customers, according to the US power outage tracker, as of a 27 September 4am EDT update.
Taking the largest hit was Duke Energy with approximately 398,000 customer outages, followed closely by Florida Power & Light Company with 238,000.
According to an advisory on the storm from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the hurricane is moving towards the northeast at nearly 26mph (42km/h), bringing with it heavy rainfall, dangerous winds, storm surge reaching up to 20 feet in some areas, as well as risks of tornadoes in parts of north/central Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and southern North Carolina.
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In the build up to the extreme weather event, utilities Florida Power & Light (FPL) and Duke Energy – those worst affected – announced initiatives to restore power to customers.
FPL said in a release on Thursday they mobilised a restoration workforce of thousands, with crews actively restoring power when safe to do so. FPL warned customers need to be prepared for potential widespread, extended power outages and continue to keep safety first.
Said FPL president and CEO Armando Pimentel: “We have crews positioned throughout the state. They are actively responding and restoring power and will continue to do so as the weather allows. We will not stop until every customer is restored.”
Duke Energy Florida said they had readied 8,000 workers, and Duke Energy Carolinas said more than 10,000 workers were prepped and staged before the storm hit.
Said Todd Fountain, Duke Energy Florida storm director: “Hurricane Helene poses a significant threat to Florida’s Big Bend and other communities along the state’s west coast. The potential of a category four storm can cause widespread damage to our equipment resulting in extended outage durations for our customers.”
