Officials: Power restored in more than 99 percent of state

A week and a half after Hurricane Irma barreled through the state, power companies say service has been restored to more than 99 percent of Floridians.

As of Wednesday afternoon, there were about 1,300 outages in Central Florida and about 70,000 statewide, according to Duke Energy and state officials.

About half of those outages were along the Orange-Seminole county line near Apopka and Casselberry, according to the Duke Energy map. Those should be have power by today.

Statewide, there are still 4,300 Duke Energy customers without power. A Duke Energy spokeswoman said some outages could be unrelated to the hurricane, causing the numbers to fluctuate.

Crews are working hard to restore power to everyone, spokeswoman Peveeta Persaud said.

“Crews will continue to work until all remaining, isolated and scattered outages are restored,” she said. “In some cases, service may be delayed in areas impacted by tornadoes, heavy tree and debris damage, and where a meter or other customer equipment was damaged and requires repair and an inspection.”

Persaud said Duke no longer is reporting outage numbers to the state because more than 98 percent of Florida has had power restored.

About 41,500 Florida Power and Light customers remain without power, mostly in the southern part of the state. FPL has restored power to more than 4.4 million homes and businesses. FPL said it’s working “around the clock” to end the remaining outages.

Municipal and cooperatives accounted for about 23,000 outages in Florida.

Officials have called this the largest power-restoration effort in U.S. history. Power companies had to restore entire service areas instead of just specific portions.

At the peak, immediately after the hurricane, more than 60 percent of Floridians were without power.