A number of Tampa Bay residents are waking up without power Wednesday morning, as Category 4 Hurricane Idalia makes landfall in North Florida’s Big Bend region.
As of 8 a.m., Duke Energy reported over 23,000 outages in Pinellas County, with the vast majority reported from homes along the barrier islands.
Meanwhile, Tampa Electric (TECO) reported over 4,000 outages, with the majority coming from the Lutz and Town 'N Country areas.
Speaking a a press conference early Wednesday morning, Gov. Ron DeSantis told reporters that over 30,000 utility crew members were “stationed and ready to go” to restore electricity after the storm.
Duke Energy said Tuesday it had more than 5,000 people ready to respond to outages.
"Duke Energy crews and additional workers from across the country are staged throughout Florida's service territory," Todd Fountain, Duke Energy Florida storm director, said in a statement. "We appreciate the assistance from our contractor partners who will help speed power restoration, as soon as weather conditions safely allow."
TECO previously stated that it has 3,000 workers on standby in Hillsborough and Pasco counties.
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Thousands of power outages reported across Tampa Bay due to Hurricane Idalia
Duke Energy reported over 23,000 outages in Pinellas County.
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About The Author
Colin Wolf
Colin Wolf has been working with weekly newspapers since 2007 and has been the Digital Editor for Creative Loafing Tampa since 2019. He is also the Director of Digital Content Strategy for CL's parent company, Chava Communications.
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