More than a million homes and businesses are without power in Florida due to Hurricane Milton, according to utility tracker.
Making landfall south of Tampa in Florida as a Category 3 storm, Hurricane Milton’s 200km/h winds, torrential rainfall, and tornadoes have left a wake of destruction.
Related article: Floods left thousands without power, but microgrids could help communities weather the next disaster
The state’s largest utility, Florida Power & Light, says its crews are ready to restore power between bands of severe weather as long as it is safe.
The company is setting up 29 staging, parking and processing sites to help speed up power restoration.
Other efforts include pre-positioning supplies, equipment and a restoration workforce of more than 17,000 men and women from 40 states to support restoration efforts.
It is also preparing crews to conduct damage assessments in order to give customers an accurate estimate of when power will be restored.
Related article: Why methane is turbocharging unnatural disasters
FPL president and CEO Armando Pimentel said, “We have a restoration workforce of 17,000 men and women and we have pre-positioned crews throughout the state.
“We are ready to respond and restore power as quickly as possible. It’s a powerful storm. There will be outages. Rest assured, we will not stop until every single customer has power.”