Hurricane Milton caused nearly triple the power outages of Helene

Teghan Simonton, Tampa Bay Times on Oct 11, 2024

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TAMPA, Fla. — More than 924,000 Tampa Bay customers are still without power as of Friday afternoon, as utilities providers tackle downed trees, flooded equipment and rows of poles brought down by Hurricane Milton’s Category 3 winds.

“This storm packed enough of a punch to knock out power to more than a million customers,” said Ana Gibbs, a spokesperson for Duke Energy.

Gibbs said that hundreds of damage assessors were deployed throughout the state Thursday to evaluate the storm’s impacts, barely two weeks after Hurricane Helene pummeled the region with record storm surge.

Helene knocked out power for more than 1.3 million customers. But Milton nearly tripled that, causing more than 3.4 million outages statewide, according to data from poweroutages.us.

“In this case, Hurricane Milton traversed the most populated areas we serve in both Tampa Bay and the Orlando Metro area,” Gibbs said. “The combination of the intensity of the storm and the higher population density made this a different response.”

Most of Milton’s damage was caused by wind — meaning disturbances to power lines from debris and uprooted trees. That’s a departure from two weeks ago, when Helene’s storm surge flooded utility equipment and made it harder for providers to assess damage. Transformers were swept away by the storm surge, Gibbs said.

Tampa Electric also had exponentially more outages during and after Milton. Nearly 600,000 customers reported having no power as of Thursday afternoon. As of Friday midday, around 525,000 remained without power.

Kimberly Selph, a TECO spokesperson, said the company has more than 6,000 utility workers from as far away as Canada, Texas and Minnesota clearing debris and making repairs.

“We are encountering large areas where rainwater has ponded, which is limiting access to equipment, and we are encountering downed trees and tree limbs have fallen onto our overhead lines in many areas,” Selph said. “These conditions make accessibility an issue, which is why we ask for patience in these early stages.”

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