When Hurricane Ian hit Florida on Sept. 28, its winds were so strong that the storm was just shy of being deemed a Category 5 hurricane.
Power lines around the state didn’t stand a chance.
According to poweroutage.us, over 660,000 customers lost power before 2:30 p.m. ET. By 10 p.m. ET, over 2 million had no power; after 5 a.m. on Sept. 29, that number climbed to over 2.5 million. By 10 p.m. ET, over 2 million had no power; after 5 a.m. on Sept. 29, that number climbed to over 2.5 million.
Southwest Florida is currently the most impacted, areas along the state’s eastern coast have also lost power.
Florida Power & Light warned of the outages before the storm hit. On Sept. 29, Gov. Ron DeSantis said there were over 42,000 linemen ready to restore power when conditions are safe. Florida Power & Light said it has already restored power to over 500,000 people.
However, the company, “anticipates some customers will face prolonged outages because portions of the electric system in Southwest Florida will need to be rebuilt rather than repaired.”
According to the National Weather Service, after the eye of the storm made landfall, it will take about 24 hours for Ian to make its way across the state.
