Milton: Power back on for 4 million in Florida

(The Center Square) – Four million accounts have had electric service restored since Hurricane Milton hit the state last week, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said at a news conference on Tuesday in Zephyrhills.

"That is the fastest that's ever been done for that many accounts," DeSantis said. "You're without power for even a few hours, it can be a real pain in the rear end, but we had over 50,000 linemen and these folks really got to work."

He also said there were about 170,000 accounts that still needed their service restored. Of the counties affected by Milton, most of those (about 10%) were in Hillsborough County.

The second-term Republican governor also said fuel continues to flow into the state from Port Canaveral and Tampa and that the state had distributed 2 million gallons of gasoline and diesel to stations that needed it.

"These are private markets, these are private companies," DeSantis said. "We are not Venezuela. You're not going to have the state government controlling what gas station gets gas."

GasBuddy analyst Patrick De Haan said in a post on X that according to GasBuddy data , 15.5% of Florida gas stations are without gas, with 45% in the Tampa/Sarasota area dry. It is 17.9% in Fort Myers/Naples, 12.4% in Gainesville and 1% in Jacksonville.

According to data from the Automobile Association of America , Florida's average gas price is $3.10, 1 cent cheaper than the previous month and 23 cents less expensive than the same time last year.

In the areas affected by Milton, only Hillsborough ($3.14 per gallon), Pasco ($3.12) and Lee ($3.11) are above the state average, with Pinellas, Sarasota, Charlotte and Manatee just slightly below.

Milton made landfall on Wednesday near Siesta Key as a Category 3 hurricane, the second major (Category 3 or greater) to hit the state this year.

Hurricane Helene made landfall in the Big Bend region as a Category 4 hurricane on Sept. 26, the second this year after Category 1 Debby made landfall on Aug. 5.

The region was also struck by Hurricane Idalia, a Category 3 storm, on Aug. 30, 2023.