(Reuters) – Over 210,000 homes and businesses were without power in Florida early on Thursday after Hurricane Nicole crashed into the state’s east coast overnight.
Utilities have already restored service to about half of the roughly 400,000 customers who lost power since the storm hit Wednesday night.
Hurricane Nicole weakened into a tropical storm shortly after making landfall on Florida’s east coast, the National Weather Service said.
The utility with the most outages and most customers already restored is Florida Power & Light Co (FPL), the nation’s biggest power utility.
FPL is a unit of Florida energy company NextEra Energy Inc.
Major outages by utility:
Power Company State/Pro Out Now Customers Served
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NextEra – FPL FL 163,100 5,280,000
Emera – Tampa Electric FL 19,900 800,000
Orlando Utilities Commission FL 27,300 269,500
Total Out 210,300
(Reporting by Scott DiSavino; editing by Barbara Lewis)
