TALLAHASSEE – Gov. Ron DeSantis said millions of Floridians will face power outages over the next two days as monstrous Hurricane Ian barrels through the state.
“You are starting to see power outages across the state, but you’re going to see way, way more over the next 48 hours,” DeSantis said Wednesday morning while at a Florida Power & Light staging area at the Columbia County Fairgrounds in Lake City.
“You’re going to have millions of people without power in this state within the next 48 hours. No question.”
In information posted online, FPL reported about 50,000 outages Wednesday morning, including about 18,000 in Miami-Dade County, 13,000 in Sarasota County, 8,000 in Collier County, 3,500 in Charlotte County, and 2,000 in Lee County.
Duke Energy Florida posted about 3,000 outages. FPL President & CEO Eric Silagy cautioned Tuesday that efforts to restore power will be affected by Hurricane Ian’s expected slow crawl across Florida.
Silagy added that it could take about 24 hours after Ian departs from areas to determine how much time will be needed to complete restoration.
More than 40,000 workers, including workers from other states, are handling outages or are on post-storm standby.