WINTER GARDEN, Fla. – Most electric company customers in Central Florida are serviced by Florida Power and Light, OUC or Duke Energy, and all of them are bracing for Hurricane Milton to cause major power issues, including prolonged power outages.
“Duke Energy Florida serves around 950,000 customers in our Central Florida area,” said Audry Stasko with Duke Energy. “When you look at some of the larger counties, Orange, you’re 431,000 customers, Seminole, you’ve got over 170,000 customers. We anticipate major impacts to our service territory because of this storm’s path and intensity. It’s going to impact some of the most populated areas of Duke Energy, Florida service territory. We anticipate significant extended power outages due to this storm.”
Lasko suggests customers consider a few things as they prepare their homes.
“Number one, ask yourself if your home is prone to flooding, which there are many areas in Central Florida, we do anticipate heavy rainfall and significant flooding. Go ahead and turn off your power from your panel breaker or your fuse box before you evacuate, or if you see water rising in your home,” Lasko said.
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“The other thing is to stay away from downed power lines. Lines could be hiding in debris. We anticipate lots of strong winds that could bring down trees and debris. Those power lines could be wrapped up in that debris. It’s just best to stay away from any lines. They could be energized and very dangerous. I’ll also say make sure your contact information is up-to-date in our system.”
If you experience Duke Energy power outages, Stasko says, “They should contact us, and they can do that a couple of different ways. Number one is by phone using our automated outage reporting system. That number is (800) 228-8485. They can also do it through their Duke Energy app, online in their portal where they normally would pay their bill. Or they can text the word out on up to 57801.”
You can also go to the Duke Energy website.
FPL is also expecting widespread, prolonged power outages. While they work on coordinating staging sites and pre-positioning its workforce, the company is urging customers to listen to government authorities and finalize preparations. Tips are available on their website.
“Thanks to our smart grid technology, we know when and where outages occur after storms, so customers don’t need to call us to report an outage. If customers have questions and would like to call us, they can call us at 1-800-4-outage,” said FPL spokesperson Conlan Kennedy.
OUC is urging customers to log in to their my.OUC.com account to make sure their contact information is current. They should also sign up for outage alerts via text message by texting REG to 69682 or visiting OUC.com/alerts. Alerts are available in English and Spanish.
OUC’s Outage Map is also available on the OUC website.
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