Area electric utility companies track outages during Hurricane Helene

As Hurricane Helene churns north toward Florida’s Gulf Coast, tens of thousands of power outages in the region have been reported. 

The storm was 130 miles west of Tampa as of 5 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 26, according to the National Hurricane Center. Maximum sustained winds accompanying the storm are 125 mph, officials say.

Florida Power and Light

More than 40,000 Florida Power and Light customers in Charlotte, Collier, Lee, Manatee and Sarasota counties are without power, according to the company's outage map.

Here are the outage numbers for the region as of 4 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 26:

• Charlotte County — 5,280 outages 
• Collier County — 9,390 outages
• Lee County — 9,150 outages
• Manatee County — 3,720 outages
• Sarasota County — 13,330 outages

Florida Power & Light has assembled thousands of workers to help, who are working between bands of weather on restoration efforts.

“We have crews positioned throughout the state," FPL President and CEO Armando Pimentel says in a statement. "They are actively responding and restoring power and will continue to do so as the weather allows. We will not stop until every customer is restored.”

Tampa Electric

As of 4:36 p.m. Thursday, approximately 16,000 customers are without power, according to the TECO outage map. The majority of affected customers are in Hillsborough County. Outages extend from to the north in Dade City, Ruskin in the south, Winter Haven to the east and Oldsmar in the west.

Lee County Electric Cooperative

There are 4,168 customers without power as of 2:21 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 26, according to the Lee County Electric Cooperative outage map.

This story is updated as information becomes available.