With power restored to 90% of Lakeland Electric customers who lost it during Hurricane Milton, the utility is now giving guidance on when the other 10% can expect to get reconnected to the grid.
Lakeland Electric’s online outage map has been updated to show the day that power is expected to be restored in 10 of its 11 zones. The estimates vary from Tuesday for much of north Lakeland and the Highlands to Friday for neighborhoods between downtown and the Polk Parkway.
The prognosis for the area bordering Lake Hancock is not available; that area has 16 customers without power.
Visitors to the Lakeland Electric outage map can click on any of the zones to see the day and time that full restoration is expected, as well as the number of outages and customers currently affected in the zone. LkldNow has created a view that shows the day of expected full recovery for all of the zones:
The map shows “our best estimate for anybody living in that zone unless they are flooded,” Lakeland Electric spokeswoman Cathryn Lacy said. “That is not to say that you may not receive power earlier than that.”
The utility now expects to have power restored to all customers, including those in flooded areas, by Friday, Lacy said. The only exceptions are houses and buildings that have damage to weatherheads or other resident-owned infrastructure that must be repaired by an electrician before power can be restored safely.
Lakeland Electric chose to add estimated completion times for each zone because it’s impossible to add an expected reconnection time for each of the nearly 10,000 addresses that are still without power, Lacy said.
As of 12:14 p.m. Sunday, the outage map showed that 9,776 customers are still waiting to have power restored. After Milton crossed Polk early Thursday, around 86,700 Lakeland Electric customers had been disconnected out of its total base of 138,664 users.
Lakeland Electric line crews are being supplemented by workers from municipal utilities in other states, bringing the total power-restoration workforce to around 600.
One priority today is completing a mainline outage on Gibsonia-Galloway Road. Once that is done “all of the main arteries delivering power to neighborhoods are complete,” the utility said.
In the coming days, crews will go into easements and backyards to reach places where bucket trucks can’t go. Lakeland Electric asks that residents keep gates unlocked and dogs inside when workers are in the area.
In other Hurricane Milton-related news involving Lakeland:
- A portion of Campbell Road in north Lakeland was closed by sheriff’s deputies after some of the roadway gave way when crews were working on a Polk County lift station, The Ledger reported.
- A Lakeland woman and her four children were rescued from rising water in their house on Thursday after WFLA reporter Beth Rousseau heard their cries for help, People magazine reported.
- Polk situation update: Polk County Emergency Services plans to hold a video update at 4:30 p.m. today. It can be viewed online on Facebook, YouTube and PGTV.
- All city of Lakeland facilities are scheduled to reopen Monday and solid waste pickup will resume its normal schedule.
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