In Manatee County, near where the center of the hurricane made landfall, about 142,000 customers lost power.

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Hurricane Milton Tracker: Storm leaves Florida at Category 1 strength after hitting the West Coast

Florida power outage map

When will power come back?

According to Florida Power and Light Company, FPL, Florida may experience longer than normal recovery times following the storm.

“FPL crews will restore power between severe weather zones as long as it is safe to do so,” the company said in a news release Wednesday.

Before the storm made landfall, Florida residents were warned to prepare for extended power outages.

There will be widespread power outages in Florida due to the Milton crisis

Duke Energy Florida is preparing for widespread power outages expected along the state's west coast due to powerful Hurricane Milton.

“As Hurricane Milton approaches the west coast of Florida, Duke Energy Florida urges its customers to prepare for this catastrophic storm and a lengthy power restoration process that will result in extended outages,” Duke Energy stated on its website, the Powering 8.4 million customers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky.

On Monday, the company announced that it would mobilize around 10,000 emergency personnel to prepare for the high number of outages that its customers could face. Likewise, FPL prepared a workforce of 17,000 people to address power outages following the storm.

According to Poweroutage.us, 766,984 Duke Energy Florida customers are facing power outages as of Thursday morning. The company originally estimated that over a million of its customers would face extended power outages. Approximately 1,153,288 FPL customers are also without power.

Hurricane Milton tracker

Hurricane Milton Spaghetti Models

The figures cover a range of forecasting tools and models, and not all are created equal. The hurricane center only uses the four or five best-performing models in its forecasts.

Recovery efforts after outages

Once power outages occur, restoration efforts will be put in place wherever and whenever it is safe to do so. However, the recovery could encounter problems caused by Hurricane Helene.

Priority will be given to restoring power to restore power to the greatest number of customers as quickly as possible. According to FPL, the following priorities are set:

• Power plants and damaged lines and substations
• Critical facilities such as hospitals, police and fire stations, communications facilities, water treatment plants and transportation providers
• Main roads with supermarkets, pharmacies, gas stations and other needed municipal services.
• Smaller groups and local areas

This story has been updated with new information.

Julia is a trends reporter for USA TODAY. You can connect with her LinkedInkeep following her X, formerly Twitter, Instagram And TikTok: @juliamariegz, or email her at [email protected]