Tampa Electric announces power is restored to ‘essentially all’ customers across Tampa Bay

TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — Tampa Electric announced power has been restored to “essentially all” customers across the Tampa Bay regions following Hurricane Milton.

As of Wednesday, Oct. 16, nearly 97% of Tampa Electric customers have power, and 95% of customers have had their service restored, according to TECO.

Some hard-impacted areas will take longer to restore, TECO said.

“Our dedicated team is working tirelessly to address the challenging outages in areas with severe damages during these final days of restoration,” said Archie Collins, president and CEO of Tampa Electric.

Essentially all Polk County customers had their power restored by Sunday while Hillsborough, Pinellas, and Pasco County customers were restored by Wednesday, according to TECO.

During the restoration process, some areas were impacted harder than others resulting in restoring existing infrastructure or fully rebuilding infrastructure.

TECO stated crews installed 605 transformers, over 1,500 cross arms, around 1,000 poles, and over a hundred miles of wire across their service area.

“With a full contingent of 6,000 utility workers in the field, we are committed to restoring service as quickly as possible after this devastating storm, which was the most powerful storm to hit this region in 100 years. While these remaining repairs tend to be more time-consuming, we will not stop until every customer is back online,” Collins said.

Tampa Electric’s Customer Service team is available 24/7 to customers for any outage-related questions or emergencies.

To report an outage with TECO, customers can:

• Visit their website .
• Text OUT to 27079
• Call 1-877-588-1010

TECO advises customers to stay away from downed power lines and use portable generators properly.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFLA.