UPDATED: 30 AUG 2023 05:25 PM EST
Hurricane Idalia knocked out electricity to nearly half a million power customers on Wednesday and threatens to leave even more in the dark as it barrels across the South.
The storm made landfall on Florida's Gulf Coast Wednesday morning, cutting off power to more than 470,000 customers in Florida and Georgia as of Wednesday afternoon, according to poweroutage.us.
Almost 260,000 outages were reported in Florida, largely spread across the sparsely populated counties of the northern Gulf Coast, while the capital of Tallahassee has so far largely escaped major power impacts. Meanwhile, the southeast corner of Georgia had seen more than 210,000 outages as of Wednesday afternoon.
Florida’s largest utilities, including Duke Energy and Florida Power and Light, did not yet have estimates for how many outages to expect or how long restoration efforts would take. As of Wednesday morning, FPL said it had restored power to more than 100,000 customers, while another 28,000 remained without power.
Georgia Power, the state's largest utility, was tracking outages Wednesday afternoon and said high winds were expected to continue. The utility said in an alert on its website it will restore power when it's safe to do so.
But FPL also warned the threat of the storm is "far from over" and told customers to expect “widespread outages” as the now Category 1 hurricane crawls toward Georgia and the Carolinas.
Anticipated strong winds and “catastrophic” storm surge threaten to topple power lines and slow restoration efforts as utility crews wait for waters to clear before moving into impacted areas. Downed trees and other debris can also hamper restoration efforts.
“Flooding and storm surge create a unique and dangerous restoration environment and can delay initial assessment efforts,” Edison Electric Institute, a trade association representing power companies including FPL, Duke, Tampa Electric and Florida Public Utilities said in a statement. “In the hardest-hit areas, search and rescue and life safety will be the top priority. Crews will not be able to use certain equipment, including bucket trucks, until high winds subside.”
According to the National Hurricane Center, Idalia reached wind speeds of 120 miles per hour and storm surges are expected to reach up to 16 feet in some areas of the state. Maximum sustained wind speeds had slowed to 90 miles per hour including stronger gusts in Florida, and high winds were reported in Georgia, according to the hurricane center's latest update Wednesday morning.
Utilities across at least 20 states plus the District of Columbia have mobilized more than 25,000 workers to begin restoring power when the storm surges clear, according to EEI.
