Utility companies work to restore power in Marion County after Hurricane Milton

[Ocala Electric Utility]

A peak of 71,202 customers in Marion County were out of power during the brunt of Hurricane Milton overnight Wednesday into Thursday, according to Find Energy.

Currently, 65,696 customers in Marion County remain out of power, as of noon on Thursday.

Of the outages, 31,437 are customers of Duke Energy, 18,478 are SECO Energy, 8,602 are Ocala Electric Utility, 7,170 are Clay Electric Cooperative and nine are Central Florida Electric Cooperative, according to Find Energy.

“The storm did not produce the worst-case scenario in terms of storm surge,” said Gov. Ron DeSantis in a press conference Thursday afternoon.

Workers from utility companies have been working through the night to restore power and clear debris from powerlines in affected areas.

“There is an order for how power is restored. Once the power plants, transmission lines, substations, and main power lines are repaired, we focus on critical facilities and needs, such as hospitals, fire stations, police departments, pumping stations, and communications facilities,” according to OEU.

Over 50,000 linemen are working across the state to restore power in the hours after the hurricane, said DeSantis.

“Then, we make sure our vulnerable populations – those in nursing homes and those with special needs are taken care of. Next up: neighborhoods and businesses. Restoring power to businesses provides key services to residents and minimizes economic loss to the community. Single residencies and customers further away from the more populated areas follow in the priority order. Our goal is always to restore power in areas of high concentration to maximize the number of people with power,” according to OEU.

The state brought linemen in from as far as California to assist, DeSantis said.

As Duke Energy works to restore power locally, the company also still is working in North Carolina to restore power to affected areas from Hurricane Helene, which devastated the region less than two weeks ago, according to the company.