DeSantis Announces 96% of Power Restored Five Days After Hurricane Idalia’s Landfall

Governor Ron DeSantis announced that nearly 545,000 accounts, representing 96% of all accounts that lost power following Hurricane Idalia, have been restored. There are fewer than 23,000 accounts left to restore. Duke Energy, Florida Power and Light, TECO and the local co-ops and municipalities have worked together to rebuild substations, power poles and transmission lines.

“Restoring power to the homes and businesses of impacted Floridians is an important step in the recovery process and would not be possible without the hard work of our utility linemen,” said Governor Ron DeSantis. “I’m glad to announce that they have been able to restore 96% of accounts less than a week after Idalia made landfall.”

DeSantis announced 25,000 linemen were on standby and one million gallons of fuel were ready to go as Hurricane Idalia approached. One day after Hurricane Idalia made landfall, power restoration crews were able to restore more than 425,000 accounts that could safely receive power.

DeSantis announced 75% of Floridians left without power were restored within 24 hours.

"Less than 24 hours after landfall, our utility linemen have already restored power to 420,000 homes that lost power," posted DeSantis on August 31.

"To give some context on how impressive this is: Michael had a similar number of power outages in 2018. I think Michael was just over 600,000 outages. This one was around 560,000. At 24 hours after landfall, Idalia has 140,000 outages. Michael still had 389,000," posted DeSantis campaign data and research director Kyle Lamb.

In Taylor and Madison counties, the Tri-County Electric Co-op (TCEC) expects that 95% of all accounts will be restored by Wednesday, September 6. In Suwannee, Lafayette and Hamilton counties, the Suwannee Valley Electric Co-op expects that 95% of all accounts will also be restored by Wednesday, September 6. Remaining portions of the region serviced by the Suwannee Valley and Tri-County Electric Cooperatives are expected to be restored by week's end.

"Customers unable to safely receive power due to property or water damage will be restored as it is safe to do so," according to the Governor's office.

Crews will remain in the impacted areas until all accounts that can safely receive power are brought back online, according to the Governor's office.