FPL estimates power will be restored by end of next week

FORT MYERS, Fla.  It could be until the end of next week until most Florida Power and Light customers on the west coast of Florida have power.

The company is estimating power will be restored by the end of Friday, Sept. 22, with the possible exception of places hit by tornadoes, flooding and severe damage.

#UPDATE: West Coast – estimated power restoration by EOD 9/22, possible exception in areas hit by tornadoes, flooding & severe damage.

— Florida Power & Light (@insideFPL) September 12, 2017

But power will be restored within the week, if not sooner, to Lee County Electric Cooperative customers in Cape Coral, Sanibel, North Fort Myers and Pine Island, the company said.

Lehigh Acres, Marco Island, Immokalee, Everglades City and further south the damage was more extensive, and most LCEC customers there could be without power for weeks.

The Florida Highway Patrol is providing traffic escorts for 600 utility trucks into hard-hit areas and restoration workers are “going non-stop,” Gov. Rick Scott said.

FHP is providing traffic escorts for 600 utility trucks into impacted areas and restoration workers are going non-stop.

— Rick Scott (@SenRickScott) September 12, 2017

The number of FPL customers without power in each Southwest Florida county as of 3:15 p.m. Tuesday is below (percentage of customers without power in parentheses):

• Charlotte 41,510 (36 percent of all customers)
• Collier 182,120 (86 percent of all customers)
• DeSoto 9,690 (58 percent of all customers)
• Glades 2,420 (71 percent of all customers)
• Hendry 8,240 (85 percent of all customers)
• Lee 187,000 (72 percent of all customers)

As of 5:16 p.m. Tuesday, power is out to an estimated 142,777 LCEC customers. And there are an estimated 587 Peace River Cooperative customers in DeSoto County without power.

Power is also out to many traffic lights around the region. Law enforcement reminds drivers to treat those intersections as four-way stops.