Factbox: Over 350,000 Florida Customers Without Power Due to Approaching Hurricane Helene

More than 350,000 homes and businesses in Florida were without power on Thursday as Hurricane Helene approached the state’s Big Bend region. As it neared Florida’s Panhandle, the storm posed the risk of a potentially deadly storm surge along much of the coastline.

Hurricane Helene has intensified into a dangerous Category 4 hurricane, with forecasts indicating it would make landfall later in the evening. The U.S. National Hurricane Center reported its increasing strength as it moved toward the northeast Gulf coast.

Florida Power & Light Company reported the highest number of outages, affecting approximately 137,897 customers. Following closely was Duke Energy, which had about 133,948 customers without power in the state.

Todd Fountain, Duke Energy’s storm director, stated that the landfall was expected to cause significant damage to infrastructure in the Panhandle and Big Bend area, leading to prolonged outage durations.

The major power outages reported by utility companies in Florida are as follows:

– Florida Power & Light Company: 137,897 outages
– Tampa Electric: 58,430 outages
– Lee County Electric Cooperative: 8,074 outages
– Duke Energy: 133,948 outages
– Withlacoochee River Electric Cooperative: 12,140 outages

In total, there were 366,035 reported outages across the state.