Public power utility crews from various parts of the country that have deployed to Florida are hard at work helping to restore power to customers in the state in the wake of Hurricane Ian.

Ian made its initial landfall near Port Charlotte, Fla., as a category 4 hurricane on September 28 and the Department of Energy on Oct. 2 reported that fewer than one million customer outages remain across all states affected by Hurricane Ian. There were approximately 872,000 customer outages in Florida, 33,000 outages in North Carolina, 11,000 in Virginia, and 3,000 in South Carolina as of 8:00 AM EDT, October 2. Outages in Florida are down approximately 68% from the peak on September 29.

“Devastation caused by Hurricane Ian left more than 2.6 million homes and businesses in Florida without power," said Amy Zubaly, Executive Director, Florida Municipal Electric Association (FMEA), on Sept. 30.

"Twenty-two of Florida’s 33 public power utilities were impacted with peak outages reaching 212,344 customers. As of 3 p.m. today, and within 48 hours of Hurricane Ian’s landfall, Florida public power utilities restored power to more than 61 percent of customers who experienced outages. This is significant progress given the extent of the damage to the system, localized flooding hampering restoration efforts, and extreme wind conditions."

She said Florida public power mobilized a team of more than 750 line resources from 125 utilities in 22 states to assist with restoration efforts. "Crews have been working around the clock to restore power to Florida’s public power communities and will continue to work tirelessly until the remaining 82,108 public power customers are back online."