Hurricane Ian's "catastrophic mark": Over 291,000 without power in Sarasota, Manatee County

Hundreds of thousands of FPL customers in Sarasota and Manatee counties remained without power after Hurricane Ian's landfall, according to the company's outage map.

There are no specific estimates yet for when power will be fully restored.

As of 3:00pm Thursday, 191,740 FPL customers were out of power in Sarasota County, or about 67% of the customer base of over 287,000.

In Manatee County, 99,790 customers were out of power, about 49.8% of FPL's entire customer base in the county of 198,710. This figure was slightly higher than it was earlier in the day.

"Ian left a catastrophic mark," Jack Eble, a FPL spokesperson said in a phone call. "Today is a major opportunity to do damage assessment, particularly in" Southwest Florida.

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The hardest hit areas, such as North Port, Charlotte and Lee County, may need to have entirely rebuilt energy grids, according to Eble. No specific damage assessment is yet available, but he said that customers in those communities can expect extended outages.

Statewide about 1.1 million FPL customers were without power. More than 600,000 customers had been restored as of 8:30 a.m. Thursday.

FPL deployed 21,000 workers from 30 states and was strategically placing them in areas hardest hit by Ian.

"Every storm is different. Every storm provides unique challenges. We are working tirelessly around the clock, focused on what hurricane Ian has left for us," Eble said.

"We really want to stress safety for our customers. We understand how difficult this time can be," he said. "We don't want customers going out to survey damage. This can create problems for our crews because the traffic slows them down."

Eble advised customers to call 911 or 1-800-4-OUTAGE to report downed power lines or areas with standing water that could have energized structures.

As for the process of restoring power, Eble said the tried-and-true method was to prioritize restoration to the largest amount of customers in the shortest amount of time. Workers start with FPL infrastructure and power plants, then proceed to critical infrastructure, which includes hospitals, 911 call centers, and senior homes.

"Keep in mind that communities and neighborhoods are also coming online at the same time," he said.

Once critical infrastructure is back online, Eble said FPL looks at community essentials to get people back on their feet: such as gas stations and grocery stores, especially in harder hit areas.

Eble called the Herald-Tribune from Charlotte County, citing damage from tree limbs, several downed signs and pockets with flooding.

"We’re really just asking for our customers’ patience at this time," Eble said. "Our crews are going to work diligently around the clock as long as it’s safe to do for us."

FPL customers can visit fplmaps.com to check on the status of outages in their area. The map updates every hour.

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Sarasota power outages: Over 291,000 without power after Hurricane Ian