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2.3 million homes and businesses still without power

in Statewide/Top Headlines by

Heat may be rising among the millions of Floridians still without power, as 2.3 million homes and businesses head toward finishing a fourth full day without.

The latest data from the Florida Office of Emergency Management show 22 percent of the state still was sweating out power outages at 3:30 p.m. Thursday, on what has been the hottest day this week for many, reaching the mid-90s in parts of the Sunshine State.

In Central Florida, 15 percent, or 84,000 customers were without power in Orange County; 30 percent, or 94,000, in Brevard County; 25 percent, or 71,000, in Volusia County; 21 percent, or 43,000, in Seminole County; 15 percent, or 21,000 in Lake County; and just 5 percent, 7,000 customers, in Osceola County.

Power has been restored to more than two-thirds of those who were without on Tuesday in almost all Central Florida counties.

In Collier County 159,000 electricity customers – homes and businesses – still were without power, or 65 percent of the county. In Lee County, 270,000 customers were without, or 62 percent. And in the Florida Keys, Monroe County still has no power for 73 percent, or 46,000 customers.

In Miami-Dade County the number of customers without power just barely slipped below 300,000, less than half of what the county had on Tuesday. Yet that’s still 26 percent. In Broward County, 22 percent were without, or 201,000 customers. In Palm Beach County, 21 percent were without power, 164,000 homes and businesses.

In Tampa Bay, Pinellas County’s number of electricity-free homes and businesses continued to fall quickly, as power has been restored to all but 21 percent, about 116,000. That’s less than a third of powerless customers on Tuesday. In Hillsborough County, 12 percent were without power, or 78,000. Likewise in Pasco, where 15 percent, or 40,000 homes and businesses, were without power. In Manatee County, 42,000, or 20 percent, were without.

In the Jacksonville area, 14 percent, or 51,000 customers, were without power at 3:30 p.m. in Duval County; 22 percent, or 28,000, in St. John’s County; and 15 percent, or 14,000, in Clay County.

Scott Powers is an Orlando-based political journalist with 30+ years’ experience, mostly at newspapers such as the Orlando Sentinel and the Columbus Dispatch. He covers local, state and federal politics and space news across much of Central Florida. His career earned numerous journalism awards for stories ranging from the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster to presidential elections to misplaced nuclear waste. He and his wife Connie have three grown children. Besides them, he’s into mystery and suspense books and movies, rock, blues, basketball, baseball, writing unpublished novels, and being amused. Email him at [email protected]

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