Power struggle: Tallahassee, Big Bend crews race to restore power in hardest hit areas

Power companies deployed around the city of Tallahassee and the region continued diligent efforts into the weekend to get all customers who suffered outages during Hurricane Helene restored.

Those companies, many of which responded from unaffected areas across Florida or outside the state, had by Saturday morning reduced the number of outages in Leon County from a peak of just under 74,000 to about 17,000.

Approximately 6,000 of those still living without power were Tallahassee Utilities customers.

Those communities with a large percentage of customers still mostly in the dark were in outlying areas of the county served by the Talquin Electric Cooperative. The Chaires community, which saw some of the worst winds, still had 2,682, or 90.5% of total customers without power, the Baker community 1,236 or 70% without power and the Buck Lake community just under 2,000 still with no electricity.

Across the state, just over 460,000 total Floridians were without power Saturday morning. In areas hardest hit by Hurricane Helene, including Taylor, Jefferson, Suwannee, Lafayette and Hamilton counties, entire populations were still struggling with no electric service.

More: St. Marks: Hurricane Helene shift makes the difference between 'hell and high water'

The state of Florida did announce Saturday that it, in close coordination with Leon County, will open five distribution centers at which families may obtain water, shelf-stable materials and tarps at no cost while supplies last. The centers will operate daily from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m.

According to a news release from Leon County, distribution points had been opened as of Saturday morning at the Jane G. Sauls Fort Braden Branch Library, located at 16327 Blountstown Highway, the Leon County J. Lewis Sr. Woodville Park and Recreation Complex at 1492 J. Lewis Sr. Lane off the Old Woodville Highway and at the Leon County Fred George Greenway Park at 4830 Fred George Road.

It was expected distribution centers would be opened at the Leon County Miccosukee Community Center at 13887 Moccasin Gap Road and at the Leon County Apalachee Regional Park at 7550 Apalachee Pkwy later in the day.

Residents seeking to check on the status of the opening of the Miccosukee and Apalachee Regional Parks POD sites are asked to visit the County’s Emergency Information Portal at LeonCountyFL.gov/ei .

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Power struggle: Tallahassee, Big Bend crews race to restore power in hardest hit areas