Over 3 million people in Florida are without power: here are the challenges in one hard-hit county

foxbusiness.com:

Tampa, Florida, resident Dr. Kevin Olsen joins ‘Varney & Co.’ to detail the widespread devastation Hurricane Milton has caused in his community.

Hurricane Milton left more than three million Florida residents without power when it tore across the state overnight Wednesday, and officials are pleading for patience as crews work around the clock to get the lights back on.

Hillsborough County, home to Tampa, was one of the heaviest-hit areas. The head of local electric company Tampa Electric (TECO) explained during a press conference Thursday afternoon that nearly 600,000 of TECO's 850,000 customers were without power, and laid out the challenges workers face in restoring it.

People walk in the water as the streets are flooded in the Southeast Seminole Heights section of Tampa due to Hurricane Milton in Florida on Thursday. (Bryan R. Smith/AFP via Getty Images / Getty Images)

TECO President Archie Collins said that to his knowledge, this is the largest outage the company has ever had.

Milton was expected to cause devastation, and Collins said TECO prepared ahead of time. He said 6,000 utility workers have been assembled to assist with restoring services, and noted that the most he has seen involved in previous hurricanes in his seven years at the company was 3,500.

HURRICANE MILTON LEAVES THOUSANDS OF FLORIDA GAS STATIONS WITHOUT FUEL

Still, they have their work cut out for them. 

Much of Thursday was spent assessing the extent of the damage. Helicopters were sent out to fly up and down the transmission grid to find sources of outages. The area has extensive localized flooding from heavy rains, which, coupled with strong winds, has caused some overhead infrastructure to sway, Collins said.

Downed trees due to Hurricane