Nearly 2 million without power as Milton hits Florida

Over 1.901 million outages have been reported in Florida as of 11 p.m. ET Wednesday, according to the USA TODAY power outage tracker, the USA Today reported.

More than 380,000 homes and businesses in Pinellas County and over 247,000 in Sarasota County are left in the dark, data shows. Over 172,000 outages have been reported in Manatee County and over 272,000 Hillsborough County.

You can follow the latest outage numbers per county using the map embed below.

"As Hurricane Milton approaches Florida’s west coast, Duke Energy Florida is urging its customers to prepare for this catastrophic storm and a lengthy power restoration process that will result in extended outages," Duke Energy stated on its website, which provides electricity to 8.4 million customers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky.

On Monday, the company said it would mobilize around 10,000 responders to prepare for the high amount of outages its customers could face, potentially over a million. Similarly, Florida Power and Light Company, FPL, prepositioned a workforce of 14,500 people to address power outages after the storm.

Hurricane force winds and tropical storm winds could hit areas around the state of Florida, Rick Davis, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service told USA TODAY, which means cities and counties that aren't in the center of the storm's path could still be affected by power outages.

MNA