Factbox: Near 200,000 still without power in Florida a week after Ian

Hurricane Ian aftermath in Florida
Graffiti is seen on a destroyed shopping building after Hurricane Ian caused widespread destruction in Fort Myers Beach, Florida, U.S., October 3, 2022. REUTERS/Marco Bello

Oct 6 (Reuters) - Almost 200,000 homes and businesses still lacked power in Florida on Thursday, a week after Hurricane Ian crashed across the state.

U.S. President Joe Biden met with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on Wednesday to assess the devastation from Hurricane Ian, and stressed the need for a united federal and state effort for the lengthy recovery ahead. read more

Search-and-rescue teams doubled back to examine tens of thousands of Gulf Coast homes and businesses after an initial sweep through areas ravaged by Ian, as the death toll topped 100 from one of the fiercest U.S. storms on record.

Utilities have restored service to most customers after Ian knocked out power to more than 4 million in Florida and over 1.1 million in North Carolina and South Carolina.

Florida Power & Light Co (FPL) said it expects restoration to be essentially complete by Friday night.

But FPL noted that thousands of homes and businesses in southwest Florida, where the storm hit with 150 mile (241 kilometer) per hour winds on Sept. 28, were so badly damaged that they may not be able to safely receive electrical service.

FPL is a unit of Florida energy company NextEra Energy Inc (<NEE.N>).

Major outages by utility:

Source: PowerOutage.us and power companies

Reporting by Harshit Verma in Bengaluru and Scott DiSavino in New York; editing by Chris Reese

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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