When will power return? FPL CEO shares timeline for Manatee and Sarasota counties
Florida’s largest power company said electricity will return soon to customers in Manatee and Sarasota counties, at least for those who received little to no structural damage. Others will have to wait for weeks or months.
Florida Power & Light customers can expect electricity to return by Sunday, Oct. 9 or sooner, FPL CEO Eric Silagy said Saturday during a press conference from the company’s command center in West Palm Beach.
He said 600,000 customers remain without power. Most connections can be repaired, Silagy said, but the company has to rebuild in areas along Southwest Florida that experienced the most damage from Ian, which will take weeks or months.
In Manatee, the company has 62,560 outages out of 198,710 customers in total, according to PowerOutage.us, a website that compiles outage numbers. The numbers are higher in Sarasota where 111,930 out of 287,120 customers have no power.
“In the hardest hit areas we will have to rebuild. We are going to be digging out sand in areas that got flooded. It is going to take time. That’s why it’s going to take a full week,” Silagy said. “We hope to get it done faster.”
Manatee is expected to receive power in phases. Nearly all of those businesses and residents in the northern part of the county can expect electricity to return by late Tuesday. The southern part of the county — an area that saw higher winds and more flooding than the north — can expect power by Wednesday evening. A tiny pocket of the county bordering Sarasota will have to wait until the following Sunday.
Power is anticipated to come back next weekend for the hardest hit communities, including Sarasota, Hardee and Lee.
Power will return in weeks, maybe months, to buildings hardest hit by Ian. Owners will have to first call an electrician.
“Those buildings have to be inspected before the power can come back on. Just because power is restored in an area, doesn’t mean your home or business will be able to accept it,” Silagy said. “You can burn the business down. People will be in harm’s way. If you have any extensive damage, if you have any damage to the roof, to the structure of the house, make sure you’re able to get an electrician to come in and inspect it.”
This story was originally published October 1, 2022 at 9:44 PM.
