TAMPA, Fla. — Currently, over 1 million people in Florida are experiencing power outages after Hurricane Helene hit the area, according to poweroutage.us. Here’s when electric companies say to expect power to come back.
Tampa Electric is reporting that 53,699 customers are being affected by outages. On the company’s outage map, it says that the company cannot provide restoration times for individual homes and businesses, due to the number and type of outages.
At a Hillsborough County press conference, the company said a lot of wires and trees are down. With standing water also filling areas crews need to reach to restore power, efforts to fully bring the power back are being slowed. Tampa Electric said it’s too dangerous to access outages in some cases, even if streets aren’t flooded, in a post on Facebook.
If flooding is likely but hasn’t yet happened in your area, they’re asking people to flip off breakers. But if water has already entered the building, do not touch any electrical equipment. The company also says if a home or business has been flooded, electricity can’t be reconnected until the system has been inspected by a licensed electrician. If you have a generator, Tampa Electric says to never use one indoors and make sure it doesn’t get wet.
Duke Energy is currently reporting 367,361 customers are being affected by 6,988 outages in the state, as of 10:44 a.m. The company says it has approximately 8,000 workers responding to outages in Florida. According to the company's outage map, Duke Energy also does not have restoration estimate times as of now.
“Our crews worked through the night to assess the immense damage caused by Hurricane Helene and get the lights back on where conditions allowed,” Todd Fountain, Duke Energy Florida storm director, said in a press release Friday morning. “We’ve made significant progress over the last 24 hours, but we still have a lot of work ahead of us. We thank our customers for their patience, support and ongoing commitment to safety.”
In the press release, Duke had similar advisories for its customers as Tampa Electric. Duke is additionally asking that anyone who does use a generator makes sure not to wire it directly to their breaker fuse box because it could backfeed on power lines. Also, they ask that people with generators watch for utility crews and turn them off when crews arrive in the area because it could be dangerous for the people making repairs.