Bay Area power companies gradually restoring power after Hurricane Milton

Milton aftermath: Restoring power

Evan Axelbank reports

TAMPA, Fla. - The lights are gradually turning back on for the hundreds of thousands of people without power in the Tampa Bay area following Hurricane Milton.

TECO, Duke Energy and Florida Power & Light are claiming progress after Milton knocked out power to more than two thirds of the area. Line workers are slated to work double shifts seven days a week, and have been brought in from all over the country to do so.

There are seven base camps spread around TECO’s service area that are manned by 6,000 workers. They have restored coverage to more than 200,000 customers, but still have another 520,000 to go.

READ: How hurricane victims can get help from FEMA

In the City of Tampa, 65% of traffic lights are still out.

Duke said they will be able to restore power to the majority of customers in Polk, Hernando and Citrus counties by the end of Sunday. Pinellas and Pasco counties should see most with power by the end of Tuesday.

FPL expects 90% of customers to have power by the end of Monday night. By Friday evening, TECO hopes to be able to give estimated restoration times for all their customers.

"Everything has to be safe and water has to be receded, debris has to be removed for us to be able to move in these large caravans of line workers and electrical trucks," said TECO spokesperson Mary Lou Carn. "So as soon as that was able to go, we will be out and about."

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"We are 100% committed to getting our customers' lives back to order," said Duke Energy CEO Melissa Sexias. "We know that the first step is power restoration. We take that job seriously, and we will continue to do that, but again, this will not be weeks of interruptions to our customers. This will be days."

As of 5 p.m., TECO is reporting about 520,000 outages out of 840,000 customers. Duke Energy is reporting 486,000 outages out of 985,000 customers. FPL has 280,000 outages out of 500,000 customers in Manatee and Sarasota counties.

TECO says this is the largest response to an outage in their history.

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