Power companies are working around the clock to get the lights back on across Central Florida and the entire Sunshine State.

Duke Energy and Florida Power & Light are hoping to have all power restored by Tuesday, and many people are expected to have it back by Sunday evening.

As of Sunday morning, FPL reported nearly 500,000 customers in Florida were without power.

Duke Energy said it needs to restore power to over 200,000 households. A number of those households are in Seminole County; however, they hope to have power restored to most of the county by Sunday night.

The company said it is taking longer than anticipated because it has to rebuild the electric power system.

Longwood family struggling

For families like the Morrisons, whose Longwood home on South Hamlin Street has been without power for seven days, it's small consolation. According to father Cecil Morrison, they're throwing away what was once good food, cooking outside daily, and sleeping together in their living room to stay cool.

"When we turn off the generator, the ice starts melting from the refrigerator and we had to take half of the meat over to our mom's," Morrison said.

He went on to say it's cost him about $30 a day in gasoline to run his generator every day over the past week.

"Right now, I'm on the last three gallons of gas, unless I go into the Christmas funds and take the last of that," Morrison said.

For Morrison's family, it's not just the loss of food, either. They haven't been able to store medication for one of their children properly, as it has to be stored in a cool place.

“It's about $1,200 bucks for these," Morrison said, showing us the medication. "But even with Medicaid I don’t know ... with the medicine going bad, I don’t know how long it will take to get him back his medicine."

Update on other power companies

Orlando Utilities Commission is tackling a few small outages.  

FPL said by the end of Sunday about 90 percent of customers will have their power back.

Complete restoration is expected by Tuesday for FPL customers.

County-by-county power outage — by the numbers:

Brevard County: 7,240

Flagler County: 1,410

Lake County: 16,287

Marion County: 21,742

Orange County: 39,691

Osceola County: 3,964 

Seminole County: 33,392

Sumter County: 3,861

Volusia County: 22,335

Duke Energy Power Outage Map


Florida Power and Light Power Outage Map


Ocala Power Outage Map

 


Orlando Utilities Commission Power Outage Map

 

 

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