Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition

More than 81,000 South Floridians await power.

- By Aric Chokey achokey@sun-sentinel.com, 561-243-6531, Twitter: @aric_chokey

As South Floridians head back to school and work, thousands are still without power a week after Hurricane Irma hit.

As of 10 p.m. Sunday, 61,070 homes and businesses in Miami-Dade County still did not have power. In Broward County, 16,770 were still without power, while 3,270 remained in the dark in Palm Beach County.

Power was scheduled to be fully restored in Palm Beach County late Sunday night. FPL now expects to have customers completely restored by this evening in Broward and by Tuesday in Miami-Dade.

FPL originally said all power would be restored in South Florida by Sunday night. The company changed its targets Saturday, saying it had encountere­d more damage to power lines and poles than originally estimated.

“The estimates that we give are just that, the estimates based on the best informatio­n we have at the time that we give it,” said FPL spokesman Bryan Garner.

By Sunday evening, electricit­y had been restored to about 94 percent of the 4.4 million customers who lost power, according to FPL.

Statewide, 6.7 million Florida homes and businesses were left with no power. But by mid-day Sunday, Florida Gov. Rick Scott announced about 6 million had been restored by 30,000 restoratio­n workers throughout the state. Scott called the efforts “the largest power restoratio­n undertakin­g in history for a single state.”

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