As residents in Palm Beach County grapple with the aftermath of Hurricane Milton, the struggle to regain a semblance of normalcy is palpable with power outages continuing to plague the region. According to Boca News Now, as of 9:30 a.m. today, 1,150 customers in Palm Beach County were still waiting for electricity to be restored. FPL, the largest provider in the state, reported that nearly half a million of its customers statewide are similarly powerless.
While efforts to restore power are steadily ongoing, the impact of Hurricane Milton has been far reaching, with outages reported in numerous counties beyond Palm Beach. Manatee and Sarasot counties have been particularly hard hit, with 105,310 and 90,160 FPL customers respectively, still has no power. To put into perspective, FPL's total loss of power during the storm affected close to 1.95 million customers, though the company has managed to restore power to over 1.5 million of them, as noted by Boca News Now.
On the local level, Lake Worth Beach experienced a significant setback when sudden explosions disrupted the electric utility, causing an almost complete outage among the city's 27,000 customers, according to the Palm Beach Post. Mayor Betty Resch described a "two-part bang" that preceded the severed tie-line to FPL, complicating the restoration process during an already tumultuous time for the residents.
As state-wide restoration efforts continue, FPL has committed to a large-scale response with a workforce of 14,500 ready to work relentlessly until power is fully restored. "I want to assure our customers we are prepared and will be working around the clock to restore power," FPL CEO Armando Pimentel said in a statement obtained by the Palm Beach Post. This statement echoes across a state that has seen more than 3 million Floridians wake to homes without power.
