The brigades in charge of restoring the electrical system in Florida could not begin work until the winds of Hurricane Ian blew below 35 mph.
The most recent figures indicate that more than 2.6 million users are without electricity in Florida one day after Ian made landfall in Cayo Costa, in the southwest of the state.
“We are going to have employees out there as soon as it is safe to do so. We have to wait for the winds to be below 35 miles per hour to do that. Once we can do that, it will take 24 hours for an evaluation of an extensive nature — or maybe not as long in certain parts — to determine when we can restore service,” he told CNN David Reuter, spokesman for Florida Power and Light (FPL).
FPL provides service to more than 5.7 million customer accounts in Florida equivalent to more than 11 million residents in the state.
At the moment, 1.1 million clients of the entity are without the service.
Ian, today became a tropical storm and will impact Georgia and the Carolinas between tomorrow and Saturday.
The system made landfall this Wednesday in southwestern Florida with winds of about 240 kilometers per hour (155 mph), according to the National Hurricane Center (NHC).
Apart from the damage caused to infrastructure, the authorities are investigating two deaths that would have been the result of the passage of the hurricane.
The President of the United States, Joe Biden, will approve a declaration of a disaster area over the territories of Florida affected by Hurricane Ian, which will allow an increase in federal aid for recovery and reconstruction of the state, as anticipated by Governor Ron DeSantis at a press conference this morning in which he classified the cyclone as “historic.”
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