Hundreds of thousands of Florida residents remained without electricity on Friday after Hurricane Isaias brought destructive winds, heavy rain and storm surge to the Panhandle. The hurricane knocked down the power lines as the rain poured down.
According to PowerOutage.us, more than 301,000 customers across Florida were without power as of the latest update. Escambia County recorded the highest number of outages, followed by Walton, Santa Rosa, Okaloosa and Bay counties.
Florida Power & Light (FPL) and the Choctawhatchee Electric Cooperative (CHELCO) said crews were responding to widespread outages, according to Fox News. However, restoration timelines would depend on when hurricane conditions became safe enough for damage assessments.
Which Florida counties have the biggest outages?
PowerOutage.us reported that Escambia County had the largest number of customers without electricity, with more than 103,000 outages.
The latest statewide figures showed:
- Escambia County: 103,320 customers without power
- Walton County: 53,986
- Santa Rosa County: 42,420
- Okaloosa County: 41,905
- Bay County: 18,064
- Jackson County: 11,499
- Washington County: 10,321
- Holmes County: 7,354
Separately, Florida Power & Light reported more than 17,000 outages in Okaloosa County, 11,150 in Bay County, 3,650 in Walton County, 2,480 in Washington County, 550 in Holmes County and 90 in Jackson County during Friday evening.
CHELCO, which serves much of the Emerald Coast, reported even more extensive impacts within its service territory.
The cooperative said 49,100 customers in Walton County, representing 92% of its customers there, had lost electricity. Only five connections had been restored at the time of its update.