Widespread South Florida power outages predicted over several days when Eta comes, FPL says

Eta is two days away from making impact in South Florida with heavy rain and winds, dangerous storm surges and a few tornadoes. Florida Power & Light is predicting the region will see power outages over several days.

On Saturday, FPL said a significant number of its customers from the Treasure Coast to Miami-Dade County and throughout Southwest Florida may experience potential widespread outages over the days Tropical Storm Eta affects the area.

“We understand the anxiety and frustration our customers are feeling to have to prepare for a storm late in this unprecedented hurricane season,” said Eric Silagy, president and CEO of FPL.

FPL has assembled a restoration force of about 10,000 people that are ready to respond as necessary and are looking to increase that workforce.

For parts of South Florida that are already feeling Eta’s affects, FPL says it has crews working to fix issues as they arise as long as it is safe to do so.

As of 7:47 p.m., the electric company was tracking 84 power outages in South Florida, according to FPL’s power outage map.

FPL is asking customers to prepare for outages and to download the FPL app or text join to 69375 to enroll in alerts about power outages and other storm-related information.

Eta is on track to cross central Cuba tonight, approach South Florida and the Florida Keys on Sunday, pass near or over South Florida and the Florida Keys Sunday night and Monday and be over the southeastern Gulf of Mexico on Tuesday.

Eta is about 375 miles south of Miami and has tropical-storm-force winds extending up to 105 miles from the center, a figure that has grown from 80 miles.