Bay Area utilities are gradually restoring power after Hurricane Milton

TAMPA, Fla. – The lights are slowly coming on for the hundreds of thousands of people in the Tampa Bay area without power after Hurricane Milton.

TECO, Duke Energy and Florida Power & Light report progress after Milton lost power to more than two-thirds of the area. The assembly line workers are supposed to work double shifts seven days a week and are recruited from all over the country.

There are seven base camps in the TECO catchment area, staffed by 6,000 workers. They have restored coverage for more than 200,000 customers, but still need to add another 520,000 customers.

READ: How hurricane victims can get help from FEMA

In the city of Tampa, 65% of the traffic lights are still out.

Duke said they will be able to restore power to the majority of customers in Polk, Hernando and Citrus counties by the end of Sunday. Most of Pinellas and Pasco counties are expected to have power by the end of Tuesday.

FPL expects 90% of customers to have power by the end of Monday evening. TECO hopes to communicate estimated restoration times to all customers by Friday evening.

“Everything has to be safe and the water has to be pushed back, debris has to be removed so we can move in these big caravans of assembly line workers and electric vehicles,” said TECO spokeswoman Mary Lou Carn. “So as soon as the time comes, we will leave.”

MORE: Help manage insurance claims after a natural disaster like Hurricane Milton

“We are 100% committed to getting our customers’ lives back on track,” said Duke Energy CEO Melissa Sexias. “We know the first step is to restore power. We take this task seriously and will continue to do so, but here too, there will be days of disruption for our customers, not weeks.”

As of 5 p.m., TECO reported around 520,000 outages among 840,000 customers. Duke Energy reports 486,000 outages among 985,000 customers. FPL has 280,000 outages among 500,000 customers in Manatee and Sarasota counties.

TECO says this is the largest outage response in its history.

WATCH FOX 13 NEWS:

Stay connected to FOX 13 TAMPA: