ORLANDO, Fla. – Thousands of Floridians remain without power after Hurricane Milton.
Michelle Lynch with the Orlando Utilities Commission said Friday it’s been busy over the last 24 hours as hundreds of crews continue to work to get power back for residents.
“We’ve had crews that have worked through the night that were working all the way until 2 a.m. New crews went out around 6 a.m. this morning.”
Lynch said OUC has 282,000 customers in unincorporated Orange County and St. Cloud.
On Friday, crews were spotted near Conway Road and Orlando police officers were out directing drivers on Curry Ford Road since traffic lights were out.
OUC said certified drone pilots are also helping out to assess hurricane damage.
“There’s a lot of damage. A lot of downed trees. If you have a huge oak tree it could take several hours to clear that oak to get to the areas that we need to restore,” she explained.
As of Friday morning, other companies like Florida Power & Light said it restored power to 1.3 million Floridians so far and Duke Energy has restored 350,000 outages and is expected to give another update Friday afternoon.
“When you’re out of power, it’s miserable so we want to make sure that we can get people back in power safely and quickly,” Lynch said.
In an update Saturday, OUC said it restored power to 98% of its customers and full restoration is anticipated by 11:59 p.m.
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