As Hurricane Milton charges inland, power outages have surged across Florida, affecting millions of homes and businesses. Within a span of about 3 hours, the number of customers without power has doubled to a staggering 2 million.
By 9:30 p.m. ET, over 1.1 million energy customers were plunged into darkness. The latest figures now reveal that more than 2.02 million customers are currently without power.
Areas near Siesta Key, where the hurricane made landfall, are bearing the brunt of the outages. Counties such as Sarasota, Manatee, and Pinellas are reporting that over 70% of energy customers are without power. In Hardee County, located in central Florida, a staggering 97% of customers are experiencing outages, leaving the region almost entirely in the dark.
The situation is expected to worsen as Milton's tropical storm-force winds span approximately 255 miles from its center, causing widespread destruction across central Florida. With the storm's impact intensifying, authorities are bracing for a continued rise in power outages as the hurricane's path unfolds.
