As thousands of utility workers tackle the damage caused by Hurricane Milton, electric companies have released estimates of when power will be restored to Tampa Bay.

Tampa Electric Co. said Saturday that it aims to restore power to “essentially all” customers in Hillsborough and Pinellas counties by Thursday. But many would see power before then. In both provinces, 55% of customers should have power on Sunday and 75% on Tuesday.

Customers in Pasco County can expect all power to be restored by Monday, and Polk County should see the same by Tuesday.

Duke Energy estimated that a majority of customers in Pasco and Pinellas counties would have power restored by Tuesday. The company said Brevard, Citrus, Hernando, Highlands, Lake, Marion, Orange, Osceola, Polk, Seminole, Sumter and Volusia counties should have power Monday. On Friday, the company said it had restored service to 350,000 customers, while more than 850,000 were still without power.

On Friday evening, Tampa Electric Co. restored power to more than half of the nearly 600,000 customers who lost power during Hurricane Milton, which was “unprecedented for the region,” according to the press release.

The outages were mainly caused by uprooted trees and other storm debris that toppled overhead power lines and poles, the news release said. Flooding of electrical infrastructure and debris on transmission lines also contributed to the outages.

With the ground already saturated by Hurricane Helene, the region saw increasing flooding and more trees at risk from Hurricane Milton’s winds, the company said.

After the storm passed, the company’s first priority was to restore electricity to essential services: hospitals, airports and police stations. Assisted living facilities and nursing homes were also a top priority.

“We want to assure customers that their power will be restored within a week, if not much sooner, of this historic hurricane,” said Archie Collins, president and CEO of Tampa Electric Co.

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