Over 4 million Florida power accounts restored; 'fastest ever done,' says Gov. DeSantis

PASCO COUNTY, Fla. (TNND) — Proudly speaking from Pasco County, Governor Ron DeSantis praised the recovery efforts following Hurricane Milton that hit Florida's central west coast last week.

DeSantis spoke about the state's post-storm response on Tuesday, highlighting how quickly power was restored.

"So we've now had over 4 million accounts restored to power since Hurricane Milton came. That is the fastest that's ever been done for that many accounts," said DeSantis.

Florida had over 50,000 linemen to get electricity turned back on, according the governor.

As of Tuesday, 156,362 customer accounts remained without power,primarily in Pasco and Hillsborough counties, according to Poweroutage.us.

"I think you're going to see a lot more progress," said DeSantis. "You know, there were storms in other parts of the country that were a fraction of as significant as this, people without power for weeks on end. And so here, people really worked hard.

Fuel has also rushed into the state.

DeSantis said, "Canaveral has doubled what they normally do to help, to help backfill. And even Port Vanity, we got that back up and running, not full capacity yet, but people thought that was going to be out for several weeks. So we're really, really happy to see that."

Most gas stations are up and running, but the state continues to provide free gas to residents at 10 fuel distribution centers.

DeSantis said more than 2 million gallons had been distributed so far.

"So we've done regular gas, we've done diesel, some of that has been just backfilling stations who needed it, and they were maybe able to get it from the port. But a lot of it has been our fuel sites that we've set up. So we've had these all throughout the affected area," he added.

Pasco County received significant resources, including 52,000 gallons of gas and 30,000 gallons of diesel.

On top of that, the Florida Disaster Fund raised $63 million, with $500,000 allocated to nonprofits for disaster relief.

"We've been able to cut red tape and we've been able to get assistance to people who need it, said DeSantis.

He announced that $500,000 of relief money will be awarded to Pasco County to help various organizations provide free muck and gut services, free debris removal, free tarping, free temporary home fixes and other volunteer services to those whose homes have been damaged or destroyedby any of these hurricanes.

Milton made landfall Wednesday as a "dangerous Category 3" storm near Siesta Key, according to the National Hurricane Center. Milton sustained winds of 120 mph at landfall, but weakened to Category 1 as it moved inland across the state.