ST. PETERSBURG (FOX 13) - Duke Energy missed its Friday deadline to restore power to all of Pinellas County before midnight this morning, but they've provided an update on the restoration process, phone lines, billing mistakes, and more to help customers plan.
Duke says it has restored power to more than 1.2 million customers in Florida in four days and continues to restore the remaining 200,000 outages. However, extensive damage and the recent inclement weather has prompted the company to modify restoration times for its Florida service area.
Currently, the company expects to complete power restoration to all customers that can receive power in Pinellas and Pasco counties by the end of day Saturday, September 16, where about 96 percent of customers' power has been restored.
Some of the hardest hit areas include Port Richey and Holiday in Pasco County, as well as Venetian Isles, Snell Isle, Jungle Prada, Treasure Island, Pasadena, Lake Seminole, Disston area, Bardmoor, North Clearwater Beach and Belleair in Pinellas County.
LINK: Duke apologizes for billing mistakes
There is no change at this time to most central and northern portions of Duke's service area. Complete restoration of power to those customers remains at the end of day Sunday, September 17.
This includes Alachua, Bay, Brevard, Citrus, Columbia, Dixie, Flagler, Franklin, Gilchrist, Gulf, Hamilton, Hernando, Jefferson, Lafayette, Lake, Leon, Levy, Madison, Marion, Orange, Osceola, Polk, Seminole, Sumter, Suwannee, Taylor, Volusia, and Wakulla counties.
By the end of the day Tuesday, September 19, Duke hopes to have severely impacted areas of Hardee and Highlands counties, the north Orange and Lake County border, and some parts of northern Volusia County restored.
We will continue to work on isolated and scattered outages until all customers are restored.
For latest outage information and other company updates, visit news.duke-energy.com/irma.
Duke says it has also updated its phone systems to help customers reach customer care more quickly.
Duke's customer care number is 800-228-8485.
Customers now have an immediate option to speak to a customer care representative.