Area electric utility companies track outages during Hurricane Helene

As Hurricane Helene departs Florida leaving a trail of disaster in its wake, tens of thousands of power outages in the region have been reported. 

The storm made landfall late Thursday, according to the National Hurricane Center, and across the Gulf Coast there are reports of major flooding as the sun comes up Friday. The city of Tampa echoed the sentiment of officials from Naples north, saying "there are significant challenges" ahead and the recovery process "will be lengthy."

More than 100,000 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 7:35 a.m. on Friday, Sept. 27:

Duke Energy

Duke Energy is reporting 231,000 outages in Pinellas County. About 73,000 of those are along the beaches and inland near the water, stretching from St. Pete Beach north to Dunedin. Despite that heavy concentration, the outages are spread far and wide across Pinellas. The county, especially the barrier islands, are also dealing with significant flooding Friday morning. 

Tampa Electric

Tampa Electric reports that there are extensive outages in the area. On Friday morning a message flashed on its website telling customers that work to restore power is underway but warning that "we can no longer provide restoration times for individual homes and businesses.” The company is reporting that there are 52,344 customers without power. The highest concentration is in Hillsborough County, with about 34,000 outages reported in communities skirting Tampa Bay.

Florida Power and Light

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.”

• Charlotte County — 12,480 outages 
• Collier County — 13,600 outages
• Lee County — 10,570 outages
• Manatee County — 40,590 outages
• Sarasota County — 43,450 outages

Lee County Electric Cooperative

There are 2,073 customers without power as of 8:10 a.m. Friday, according to the Lee County Electric Cooperative outage map.

This story is updated as information becomes available.